1. Apologetic billboard replaces atheistic sign

Comment #123654 by Mr DArcy on February 7, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I hereby publicly give permission for any individual or organisation, to offend me and or the ideas I express. I will not respond to personal remarks. Unless shown to be wrong, I will certainly respond to falsehoods whether attacking my ideas or not.



Needless to say, I will not be advertising with Kegerreis, purveyors of ignorance.

2. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #123613 by Mr DArcy on February 7, 2008 at 12:04 pm

Thomas Paine:

"The world is my country!"

A sentiment I heartily agree with.

3. Scientists Say Mummies' Lice Show Pre-Columbian Origins

Comment #123588 by Mr DArcy on February 7, 2008 at 11:25 am

studying parasites may become a valuable new tool in scientific efforts to understand human migrations and the spread of disease.

I have an idea where the self confessed mosquito, Dinesh D'Souza, may fit in with his insidious ideas.

Alright, I'm being unfair; it's not the mosquito which is the parasite for malaria, but the critter the mosquito carries and transmits when it sucks blood.

4. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #123573 by Mr DArcy on February 7, 2008 at 11:08 am

"An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth". Perhaps? Rowan Williams must know his own religion's view of justice.

As to whether Islamic thieves in Britain will ever be entirely armless is another question.

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

Comment #122591 by Mr DArcy on February 5, 2008 at 2:21 pm

Someone like Simmons, being a doctor, knows his arse from his elbow. Unfortunately, this person is obviously, or very well paid to be , NOT interested in science whether hypothetical or theoretical. Yes his patients, hopefully, will get the benefits of his medical training, which of course has been derived from the scientific method. Unless of course the good doctor saw-bones, relies on prayer to revive the sick.

Has the Discovery Institute done any research into the "Lazarus" effect, or indeed into anything useful?

6. Blasphemy

Comment #122522 by Mr DArcy on February 5, 2008 at 11:51 am

I bet the Christians are secretly envious of the vicious mental hold that Islam has over its adherents. I mean when the Pope says no to contraception, the more modern Catholics use it anyway, and can buy their way out of sin at confession. The Islamics, however have no problem with mutilating parts of or all of the human body. The Islamics we hear about are still living in the middle ages, just look at their countries of origin. The Islamics we don't hear about are probably too frightened of "offending" Allah to do anything. The modern world will tame Islam in due course as it did with Christianity, probably when the oil runs out in the Middle East.

7. Hook, line and rapture

Comment #109169 by Mr DArcy on January 8, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Great stuff!

Pat Condell has hit the nail on the head when he equates Roberston's spirituality with $$$$$$$$!

The celebrity preacher who saves your soul for a few dollars more! Is Robertson more expensive than his rival saviours? Quality doesn't come cheap.

What a gem.

8. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109159 by Mr DArcy on January 8, 2008 at 1:03 pm

ianmkz is right. Time is meaningless to the celestial tsar, in just the same way as he, God, is meaningless to me.

Just the thought of all those self righteous, pompous and closed minded religios getting upset about their beliefs being ACTUALLY questioned, cheers me up no end.

The bastard priests and their apologists have had their sway for far too long. Time for some payback!

No sorry, we can't give change for a lost soul!

9. US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists

Comment #109013 by Mr DArcy on January 8, 2008 at 6:46 am

As Samuel Johnson said :"a man who is tired of London is tired of life".

Anne should definitely head for London.

Anne Coulter, Huckabee, Ken Ham and the rest of them should be sent to Coventry.

10. Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Comment #105045 by Mr DArcy on December 30, 2007 at 12:50 pm

...then I read that the Vatican have denied the story

Yes a denial with about the same substance as that of the Holy Ghost. The last thing the Vatican wants is to make things clear and understandable,- apart from sin and eternal hellfire!

11. Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Comment #104752 by Mr DArcy on December 29, 2007 at 10:53 am

"Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and are not delegating their priests in the fight against the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a properly trained exorcist.

I can imagine the exorcist training academy. Like Dirty Harry in Magnum Force, there will be pop-up demons appearing suddenly from the most unlkely places. The trainee priest will have but a split second to draw his cruifix and utter a prayer before he is overwhelmed by evil, or covered in slime. Trainees "crucing" the wrong target will have points deducted, and will have to say ten Hail Marys. The training will have to be carried out at high tempo to the accompaniement of Black Sabbath and the like. Lucky rabbits' feet will not be permitted for trainees. The Holy Hand Grenade is only to be used in soul threatening situations!

A blockbuster could written about this! Sod Dan Brown!

12. New journal to target education in evolution

Comment #104461 by Mr DArcy on December 28, 2007 at 2:27 pm

The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium is far too high brow for me. Excuse me whilst I go and walk the crocaduck.

13. Man and God

Comment #104442 by Mr DArcy on December 28, 2007 at 1:44 pm

anna says:

I was brought up a liberal Lutheran.

What on Earth is that? Are liberal Lutherans who sin, given an anaesthetic before being burned? Are they allowed a defence lawyer before the final judgment?

Either way the sceptical attitude seems to have done anna well.

14. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104420 by Mr DArcy on December 28, 2007 at 1:14 pm

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor said:

He also spoke of the importance of helping those in need, including the homeless. "If we always walk past the homeless men and women in our cities and never really look at them, never allow them to touch our hearts, something essential is missing in our idea of Christianity, and we find that, like the innkeeper in the Gospel."

If the divine being has all the powers ascribed to Him by the priests, I wonder why there are all these "people in need". You'd think a perfect creator would at least behave like a "heavenly father" and look after his crop. Yes I do understand about "free will", but from the divinity's point of view it's the same as saying: "There now, I've made you so beautiful. Now here are the matches and petrol (gasoline), now just go away and play, and if you burn the house down, blame yourselves not me, because you have free will".

Actually the religions love poverty and its effects. It gives them a fertile breeding ground. The Christian church arose as the product of the Roman Empire's slavery. It was the religion of the slaves. Its revolutionary character could not be suppressed so instead it was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 AD. Subsequent talk of the "meek inheriting the Earth", became rather downplayed.

Now it's big business.

15. Man and God

Comment #103731 by Mr DArcy on December 26, 2007 at 3:30 pm

For the sake of Paula's head count, I have never believed in any God apart from Bacchus or Dionysus. My prayers are always answered by these Roman and Greek gods, unless of course a particular bottle of the divine substance has been tainted by an evil spirit.

Re the Times article; it may be worth considering that Rupert Murdoch, one of the richest people in the world, owns The Times among many other media operations. If The Times makes any profit, it is mere pocket money to his organisation. The editors of The Times (substitute name), will have been well briefed by their owners to express the points of views held by their readers. It should be no surprise that The Times has both articles in favour of religious belief and indeed the assumption of its "special place" in British life, as well as articles opposing religion like those by Matthew Parris.

As far as Murdoch is concerned, any article which makes readers look to the Sky, and keeps his corporations' profits rolling must be heaven sent.

16. 2 fleas for the Christmas week

Comment #103666 by Mr DArcy on December 26, 2007 at 1:07 pm

I am always one to admire the ingenuity of the human mind. Whilst having no particular claim to excellence in any field of human endeavour, I do claim to be fairly well grounded in "common sense", (no sorry I can't define that).

The skill of the theologians and their apologists is not be underestimated. With a few eruduite remarks and the right amount of doubt casting maybe even the non believer can be saved:

The author believes that the concept of a transcendent entity as the source of morality and ultimate justice, is an essential foundation of rational human life and functioning. Without a transcendent authority or standard, the numerous pursuits and values of humans are merely peculiar delusions characteristic of the human species.

Probably a volume would be needed to define such terms as "transcendent entity", and "transcendent authority", and I am not even going to begin to wonder what these terms mean.

What interests me, is the way these high sounding expressions, are used by the author or the editor, to act as the divine snowplough for mere atheistic arguments. The feeling I get is something like "Get that shit out of the road, we have to keep God in business."

It always amuses me how the "transcendent", by definition, is always higher and better than mere knowledge.

17. 'Atheistic fundamentalism' fears

Comment #102373 by Mr DArcy on December 22, 2007 at 1:55 pm

Dr Morgan said it was "perfectly natural" to have a "coherent and rational debate about the tenets of the Christianity".

OK. Let's be "coherent and rational" and ask why the Christian God invented such monstrosities as smallpox in the first place. Why does this omnipotent being allow its creation to create such a mess on this planet, quite apart from the natural disasters designed into his creation.

I suspect coherence and rationality are the last things that this welsh mysticist has on his mind when getting upset about Winterval or crucifixes hanging around necks.

18. 'Atheistic fundamentalism' fears

Comment #102367 by Mr DArcy on December 22, 2007 at 1:36 pm

The good bish said:

He said: "God is not exclusive, he is on the side of the whole of humanity with all its variety."

Which is why the Christian God flooded out all creatures of the Earth saving only Noah and family and two of each of the other animals and plants. I won't ask what the lions ate during the voyage, but I am intrigued as to Noah's storage of bacteria and unicellular organisms, including no doubt HIV aids, smallpox, ebola, flu, you name it.

How the Australian snails got to the ark in time and how they travelled there also intrigues me.

As Prime Numbers says, their absurd views are now under the cosh, and they don't like it one bit.

19. Survey finds most Americans believe Jesus born of virgin

Comment #102356 by Mr DArcy on December 22, 2007 at 1:05 pm

So 75% of those polled believed in the virgin birth. What did Joseph think about his missus being zapped by the holy ghost? Did the droit de seigneur apply to Mary? Apparently so. Hardly a strong basis for the world's biggest organised superstition, where the Lord gets to have his way first.

And yet we get characters like D'Souza arguing that Christianity is the source of the best and only moral code.

Still from Mary's point of view, better to have been shagged by a god, than never to have been shagged at all.

20. Bible bashing dying out in Kansas

Comment #102349 by Mr DArcy on December 22, 2007 at 12:46 pm

I look at life from the materialist viewpoint,(philosophical meaning), and from this viewpoint I see the various religions of the world as reflections of the societies that give rise to them. The "happy hunting ground" heaven of the native north Americans differs greatly from the "harps and angels" version of European Christianity, as that in turn differs from the various other "heavens" around the world. The Norse Valhalla is reserved for warriors who fell in battle, and has a doorway wide enough to accommodate 800 shoulder to shoulder.

Catholicism in South America is very different from its European HQ's version.

If the Bible bashing Christians of Kansas are mellowing a bit, it only reflects the changes going on in that part of the world. Reality, both social and natural, will always assert itself whatever perceived mysticism is generally accepted.

21. Creation college seeks state's OK to train teachers

Comment #102095 by Mr DArcy on December 21, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Since evolution theory is based assumptions,

Evolutionary theory is based on masses of empirical evidence.

i can't convince my logic how that DNA soup came into existence in the first beginning?

Science doesn't know the answer to that question either. By the way, can you define "DNA soup"?

Please do not say it is too complicated to explain. Nothing is complicated where reason&logic involves.

In other words wooter doesn't want to be "blinded" by the science. I agree with the idea. As a non scientist, I like my science distilled to to point where I can understand in a general way what is going on.

However to say that science doesn't currently have all the answers is 10 billion light years away from saying that therefore the god of the gaps creeps in to do His stuff.

There has to be evidence for such an idea.

22. For the Love of Christ

Comment #102035 by Mr DArcy on December 21, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Has this man Justin Fatica got anything positive to say? Apart from scaring some young people into Christianity and making a few bucks for himself, what is his contribution to humanity, of which I am a part?

From what I have read, the man has nothing to offer humanity apart from physical and mental violence. Vive la Catholicisme!

23. Sorry to disappoint, but it's nonsense to suggest we want to ban Christmas

Comment #102023 by Mr DArcy on December 21, 2007 at 12:12 pm

But we are innocent. It is the Christians who are stirring this dangerous pot, inventing non-stories, yearning for martyrdom

What! Are the Christians inventing non-stories? It couldn't possibly be, after all they have the almighty behind them. Even if the Archbishop of Canterbury has recently doubted many facets of the Christmas story. ( The star, "stars don't behave like that", the stable, the wise men). For all I know he doesn't believe in the white rabbit and the holy hand grenade either.

Yearning for martyrdom, yes. After all Christianity was the religion of the slaves in the Roman Empire, the religion of the oppressed against tyranny. Unlike the official religion, Christianity was open to all comers, no membership fee required. Despite being repressed by the empire it spread and was eventually adopted as the official religion of the empire in 313 AD. Some 300 odd years after the supposed founder blazed His way onto Earth.

The John Frum religion has more historical veracity than Christianity!

24. Good God! A politician who doesn't believe...

Comment #101976 by Mr DArcy on December 21, 2007 at 10:31 am

The Jesuits used to claim, maybe they still do: "give us a child until he is 7 and he will be a Catholic for life", or words to that effect. In Clegg's case, maybe to keep in with his wife, he goes through the motions, like Dawkins singing carols. If he takes any care in the upbringing of his kids, his non belief is sure to rub off on them, even if it only gets to the questioning stage.

In my own case, I'm lucky that my father managed to throw off his Catholicism because he lost his temper with the priest that told him he couldn't read the novels of Alexandre Dumas and threw my father's book accross the room. My father's reaction was to to tell the priest: "No bloody priest is going to tell me what I can read!"

So I'm lucky. No superstition in my upbringing, but I still have a particular dislike of the Catholic church, as it turns out nothing to do with my father, but because of its arrogant and authoritarian manner.

25. Creationists plan British theme park

Comment #99414 by Mr DArcy on December 16, 2007 at 3:25 pm

The battle against ignorance never ends. What is obvious to you, may not be to another person.

In a way, I admire the Christian creationists' attitude towards defending their "holy book". They at least realise that if any one part of their view is proved wrong, then the whole edifice is liable to collapse. If the universe isn't really 6011 years old (thanks to bishop Ussher of Armagh and his dating of the Bible), then what else is incorrect, inaccurate or misleading in their holy book?

Most Christians, I think, believe in evolution as part of God's development for His creation. In which case, the mainstream Christian has a much harder job of explaining why God waited some 13.7 billion years before sending his own son, part of Himself, and also joined to the holy ghost in the almighty Triumvirate, to go to Earth as a man, perform a few "miracles", be tortured to death and resurect Himself back to heaven to protect humanity from its sins.

The whole concept is manifestly absurd.

When these people have something positive to say about the human condition then I am always going to listen. In the meantime their message seems to be "Bah humbug to Darwin", (geologists, palaeontologists, cosmologists, physicists and any other branch of science that goes against their young Earth idea is also included)

26. Happy Newton Day!

Comment #99381 by Mr DArcy on December 16, 2007 at 2:08 pm

May the great Spirit of Santa pervade the world with His generosity, His benevolence and His wisdom.

May those in the northern hemisphere forever enjoy the dreary dark days and the coldest time of year with the memory of at least one good feast.

May those heretics who claim that Jesus rode into Jerusalem upon a reindeer have their noses made red.

May those wise men of the east please inform us how to grow more Myrrh for such is its value that the black gold of Iraq pales into insignificance.

May those ozzies reading this please realise that the real Ashes are but a part of our fireplaces, in this part of the world!

27. ...and another FLEA...

Comment #97176 by Mr DArcy on December 11, 2007 at 3:08 pm

Darwins' Origin of the Species is still available in most bookshops. What a shame that Darwin didn't make a study of the parasites that preyed upon the Galapagos finches, (or did he?).

The religios would love ignorance and mysticism to last forever. They after all are comfortable with their faith; it helps them live their lives with some sort of guidance and certainty in their view.

No wonder they get upset when upstarts like Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Hutton, Darwin, just to name a few believers, come along and undermine the foundations of their house of cards. Now Dawkins, for all his Anglican upbringing, has turned vehemently against them. Their response, (like D'Souza's in the Hitchens debate), is to become a mosquito in a nudist colony. If you have nothing creative of your own to say, then you become a parasite on what others have said.

28. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #97167 by Mr DArcy on December 11, 2007 at 2:34 pm

I am propsing Father Morris for the Ignobel Prize for services to religion. The man is a showman and snake oil salesman for the Catholic Church. He quotes from his ignorant boss about the so-called failure of Marxism. How many times does this have to be said? Marx had nothing to do with what happened in Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, and all the other countries which adopted the name of "socialism" or "communism".

In Stalin's Russia, Marx would have been one of the first against the wall. Even in his own lifetime Marx was quoted as saying "If these people are marxist, then I am not a marxist." Marx died in 1883.What happened in Russia was capitalism pure and simple, but with the leaders using communist, marxist jargon as their "moral" justification. Look at the reality: the workers (a minority under the Tsar), worked for wages under the Tsars, the Bolsheviks, the "Communists" and currently under the Putinists. We can be sure that a privileged minority class was/is well provided for by the labour of the workers in Russia and elsewhere.

Anyone knowing anything about Marx will recall that Marx was in favour of the "abolition of the wages system". The various land reforms in Russia and elsewhere were part of the process of creating an industrial working class, capable of working in factories and with modern machinery. Look no further than China or India today, for the same thing.

Neither socialism nor communism has ever existed, nor been tried, it will take a willing majority of the world's workers for that to happen.

The pope accused Marx of forgetting about God, but Marx understood the mystical realm of religion very well: "the sigh of the oppressed, the opium of the people".

29. A New Flea in Town!

Comment #95488 by Mr DArcy on December 8, 2007 at 12:41 pm

Some of us may not know that David Robertson "The Wee Flea" and author of the flea book which Louise above is recommending, has been banned from posting on this site. He came back under another name and was banned again. I personnally didn't see why he should be banned, whilst I disagreed with most of what he wrote. Again personnally I have no objection to Robertson making any kind of statement about the characteristics of the posters on this site. In his wisdom Josh has decided not to allow Robertson back on this site. There's nothing I can do about that.

Louise accuses Dawkins of:

Dawkins would prevent today's parents teaching their children what they want.

Where on Earth does Louise get this idea from? Certainly not from TGD, but maybe from "The Dawkins Letters".

Louise says she has "no firm opinion" about the existence of God. The rest of her post suggests otherwise.

30. Bah, Hanukkah

Comment #94785 by Mr DArcy on December 6, 2007 at 2:23 pm

I'm all in favour of the good food and wine to celebrate the turn of the (northern hemisphere) sun towards longer days. I just hate these religious bastards hijacking our feast, making us feel guilty about it, and telling us that we don't understand the true significance of christmas, hannoukah or whatever else religious things there are around at this time of year.

Bah humbug to these religious Scrooges!

31. Evolution and Texas

Comment #94751 by Mr DArcy on December 6, 2007 at 12:45 pm

Ignoramuses of the world unite! You have a world to lose. You have nothing to lose but your knowledge. Your chains await you!

Apologies to Marx, but is everything bigger in Texas including ignorance? A scientifically illiterate population will not bode well for humanity, let alone the USA. Yes I know there are more guns in Texas than there are atheists in the Vatican, but does reason really not enter into these peoples' thinking?

Was the Earth really created in October 4004 bc? Did crocaducks ever crawl alongside humans? Are these creationists dishonest and mendacious people?

A lawyer might well see great Scope for legal pickings!

32. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #94745 by Mr DArcy on December 6, 2007 at 12:08 pm

If Dawkins is Darwin's rottweiller, and Rattzinger is God's rottweiler, then is D'Souza Rattzinger's rottweiler, or just his poodle as was Tony Blair to Bush? Chimimoio is obviously Rattzinger's hyena scavenging on the dead souls of Africans, and the bishop of Carlisle appears to be a canine destined for instant put down because of his reckless attacks. (Mongrol Ignoramus).

As for the rest of the pack:

"Cry havoc! And let loose the dogs of war!"

33. Papal encyclical attacks atheism, lauds hope

Comment #92475 by Mr DArcy on November 30, 2007 at 3:22 pm

Thanks to NMcC for the endorsement of what I have said re Marx.

Marx argued for a democratically organised Socialist Party and Lenin argued that the majority of the workers were too stupid and needed to be led by the nose by people like himself.

The fact that Marx's ideas were hijacked and distorted by plenty of political adventurers in no way means that Marx was wrong in his main ideas. Marx's labour theory of value, and the materialist conception of history still hold true today. Class struggle may be an unfashionable expression, but that is exactly what is going on in the world.

Pope Benedict may well be able to look upon masterpieces created by Raphael, Michaelangelo and others every time he wakes up, but still some 2 billion people in the world live on less than $2.00 a day. Research it youself. Try typing "world poverty" into google.

Would a kindly god have wanted a world like this?

34. Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin

Comment #92459 by Mr DArcy on November 30, 2007 at 2:43 pm

Does anyone over there in the U.K. want to put me up while I find a job and place to live? I don't think I can stand this country any longer.

anna thinks that the grass is greener elsewhere. Whilst she is welcome in London, (which really isn't that cold, just dreary), there must be loads of other places to consider if weather is a consideration. In Britain our religios are just more subtle and slimy than the variety that appears so common in the USA.

When I was a student in the USA, more years ago than I care to admit, I was struck by the number of people who asked me my star sign and on being given a response would then decide upon my character. Often they were given the wrong star sign by me, and it was interesting to see the interpretations that the various star signs gave upon the same person. I had never before come accross this in Britain. My peer group and myself, had always assumed that horoscopes were a load of nonsense, and it was quite a shock to find young people my own age took it seriously. I don't know if current university students in the USA still ask each other their star signs, if they don't then the USA has grown up, or if they still do then the USA still has a long way to go.

Having said that plenty of superstition still persists in Britain.

35. Papal encyclical attacks atheism, lauds hope

Comment #92430 by Mr DArcy on November 30, 2007 at 1:40 pm

Neither does the failure of Marxism.

Marxism has never failed. It has never been put to the test. Forget Soviet Russia, look at Marx and what he wrote. Marx would have been one of the first against the wall in Soviet Russia.

36. Papal encyclical attacks atheism, lauds hope

Comment #92420 by Mr DArcy on November 30, 2007 at 1:06 pm

Pope Benedict is quoted as writing:

Marxism, the Pope wrote, had left behind "a trail of appalling destruction" because it failed to realize that man could not be "merely the product of economic conditions".

The German pope shows his appalling ignorance of what his fellow German, Karl Marx had to say. As usual in the 20th and 21st century Marx is blamed for what went on in Russia, China, Cuba and elsewhere. What happened in these places was capitalism where the main owner was the the state. The fact that Lenin, Stalin, Mao and others gave their regimes "marxist" labels in no way disguises the reality of what went on in those countries. The workers still worked for wages because they had to, the privileged class benefitted from their work and were able to live lives far removed from those supporting them.

If you don't believe me, ask yourselves what is the prevailing system in China today? It looks very like rampant capitalism to me, but the ruling party is called the Chinese Communist Party, therefore it must be "communist". The conditions in China today resemble England in the 1840's, when Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, in which the statement referring to the expansion of capitalism appears: "The cheap prices of its commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls,".

The current pope clearly knows little of what Marx wrote, like so many other intellectuals who are happy to blame Marx for what happened in Russia. In his own life Marx, commenting on a French socialist group is said to have commented "If these people are marxist, then I am not a marxist." Marx died in 1883.

Incidentally Marx is on the Catholic Index.

37. Banishing the Green-Eyed Monster

Comment #91854 by Mr DArcy on November 29, 2007 at 1:03 pm

Don't forget that Hilary was helped through that episode of Bill and Monica by her faith in God!

38. This Friday: Debate between Dan Dennett and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #91840 by Mr DArcy on November 29, 2007 at 12:46 pm

The fact that D'Souza said in his debate with Hitchens that he felt like a mosquito in a nudist colony is probably more accurate than he has been given credit for. He has admitted that he feels like a bloodsucking insect, presumably much like one of Dawkins' fleas. Mosquitoes of course are the vector for the malaria and other bugs, that plague mammals in general and humans in particular.

The man should be given credit for admitting in public that he is trying to infect humanity with the infection brought about by religion. I know that he doesn't see it that way, but.....

39. A New Flea in Town!

Comment #91822 by Mr DArcy on November 29, 2007 at 11:44 am

I sit here shaking in my boots that Kathleen Jones may have actually written something new and educational about the subject of why Dawkins is wrong about God.

The actual content of her book, is of course completely unknown to me, so perhaps she's going to argue that Dawkins is far too kind in his description of the Christian God as a homicidal dictator of the universe, or words to that effect. Somehow, a little birdie tells me that she will not take that line.

We shall all have to wait and see.

In the meantime a British teacher in Sudan has been convicted of insulting religion and sentenced to 15 days in jail followed by deportation. Her crime? Allowing 8 year olds to name a teddy bear "Mohammed". Probably only pressure from the British government prevented the sentence from being far worse.

These purveyors of religious ignorance of the real world, contrast rather badly with the human beings out there who are actually trying to explain how the universe works.

40. 'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested

Comment #90848 by Mr DArcy on November 26, 2007 at 1:52 pm

Being a woman she is worth half a man, being (presumably non muslim), she is worth killing. Being a westerner also, well 3-6 months in jail, the girl's getting off light.

For ignorant people who actually believe that blasphemy is a crime, from the safety of my keyboard, I say "bollocks to you".

Whilst we know that 72 virgins await Islamic martyrs in heaven, is there any reason for the women to go there? What's in it for them?

41. Stem cell breakthrough

Comment #90828 by Mr DArcy on November 26, 2007 at 1:22 pm

If it ever becomes possible to grow a baby from a scraped-off skincell will that baby than have a soul?

"No" is the short answer. "Souls don't exist, or are at least unproven," is the longer answer.

42. Stem cell breakthrough

Comment #90483 by Mr DArcy on November 25, 2007 at 9:25 am

PZM presents some more evidence of ongoing knowledge. All power to the talents of those who have researched this stuff. The less mysticism that is connected to "life" the better as far as I'm concerned.

As far as I'm aware no-one is yet able to define "life", and what is the difference between it and inanimate objects. Yes, we all know the difference, but just try to define it.

The religious people think that life is some sort of spark infused into Adam and nature by God, but science seems to be at variance with this view.

43. New Ape Fossils Found in Africa

Comment #89020 by Mr DArcy on November 19, 2007 at 2:02 pm

I will go out on a limb

And so will I, with a forbidden fruit held by one of the other limbs!

44. Onward Christian teachers?

Comment #87575 by Mr DArcy on November 12, 2007 at 1:50 pm

In a speech not long ago the Archbishop of Canterbury quoted the saying, "teaching children is like engraving in stone", meaning that what is learned early is what sticks.

Our venerable archbishop is not as dim as he looks. I think it was the Jesuits who claimed something like: "Give us a child until he is seven, and he will be ours for life". The so-called "God gene" is obviously for the survival of young children who HAVE to trust what adults tell them. Without adults around, young humans would just perish. A young antelope develops to maturity much quicker and can run faster in its second day than I ever could.

Humans survive because they are social animals and with co-operation comes strength. The relatively long maturity period of humans allows more time for social interactions and the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next. The fact that a lot of nonsense is also passed on, in no way invalidates the process.

45. Dr Bari: Government stoking Muslim tension

Comment #87226 by Mr DArcy on November 11, 2007 at 2:29 pm

Another apologist for religion. Yuk! They make me sick. The poor persecuted muslims of Britain are members of the working class just as are the poor Christians, Jews, Hindhus and others. Their interests lie in forgetting about their religion, and remembering or discovering why "poor" or subservient classes exist at all.

46. Allan Gregg interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #87222 by Mr DArcy on November 11, 2007 at 2:04 pm

If there is a caring God as billions of believers think, then how do we explain the apparent non intervention of this caring deity. The current state of the world:

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp

Of course the easiest explanation is that there is no God, and that it is up to humans to sort the world out and the sooner the better.

47. Sir David Attenborough on God

Comment #87213 by Mr DArcy on November 11, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Ken Livingstone, "Red Ken", is Mayor of London, a supporter of the ruling Labour Party and a politician. The man will behave like a chameleon, depending upon whom he has to please. Giuliani in the USA as the ex Mayor of New York, is behaving in the same way in his attempts to become president.

David Attenbourgh, on the other hand is a naturalist and knows a lot about what actually goes on in the battle for survival. He has no axe to grind either for against a "creator". The fact that he doesn't believe in one happens to agree with my own view.

His various broadcasts over the years have enthralled both me and my family, and given an awe inspiring view of the world, otherwise impossible from an armchair in London. The man is not interested in God, nor am I. Let's have more of the real knowledge.

48. I Am, Therefore I Rationalize

Comment #87199 by Mr DArcy on November 11, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Rtambree has a point. Psychologists still defer to the theories of Freud, Jung and others in the field. As a discipline, IMO, they have not kept abreast of the science relating to their subject.

The expressions: "too many chiefs and not enough indians" and or "too many generals and not enough soldiers" spring to mind.

I think it was Marx who said something like " philosophers have interpreted the world in many different ways, the point however is to change it". It's a point of view that I agree with.

49. I didn't know the FLEA CIRCUS was back in town!

Comment #85344 by Mr DArcy on November 5, 2007 at 2:14 pm

I'm all in favour of the fleadom of expression. The more these parasites commit themselves, the more material is exposed to "DEUSICIDE"! the wonder cleaner of the mind. If not satisfied, we guarantee your money back.

50. Response to Dinesh D'Souza op-ed

Comment #85337 by Mr DArcy on November 5, 2007 at 1:58 pm

Being a mere peasant, I cannot possibly comment on the style in which other posters phrase their comments. To me, as long as the meaning is clear, then I can make my mind up about something.

I agree with the gist of what O'Connor has said. The man D'Souza is a consumate showman selling snake oil. Maybe he would like to be the next Billy Graham or the like. What the hell. The man believes in miracles, he holds an absurd position and should be ridiculed as such. The scientific method is based on faith according to D'Souza. The bollocks that this man spouts should be carefully collated and used in evidence against him.