1. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #112162 by celestial_T on January 16, 2008 at 1:36 pm

Duff - just have to say: 'fuckwittian' ?! (comment 9 this thread)that's a truly inspiring bit of evolution of the english language right there!

More seriously, I've always struggled to understand how anyone can argue against the fossil record. One only has to hold these things in one's hand to see the magnificence of life's history on this planet - and feel a sense of awe that any religion can only dream of inspiring. But I'm lucky: I've worked on fossil material and seen some amazing things up close.
Maybe schools should be giving kids more hands-on examples of our origins? do science teachers fear sounding 'evangelical' when they talk up the wonders of nature? or don't they get the chance? (I don't know - it's a long time since I was in a classroom...)

2. Nurses Told to Turn Muslims' Beds to Mecca

Comment #94314 by celestial_T on December 5, 2007 at 9:05 am

hi steve99
re your comment 43: anything that makes the DM look almost sane should certainly be treated with caution! maybe the fact that we are ready to believe these things says more about us? is there a willingness to believe these stories so that we can enjoy feeling ever more put-upon? On the other hand, just when you think you're over-reacting an incident like Muhammed Bear comes along...

Re media reporting, perhaps we could have some kind of rating system here to convey the reliability of various sources. Certainly there must be forest-loads of non-UK publications whose credibility I wouldn't be in a position to judge. An ARS (Academic-Reasonable-Scurrilous) Rating perhaps?

3. Nurses Told to Turn Muslims' Beds to Mecca

Comment #94222 by celestial_T on December 5, 2007 at 3:42 am

Phew! I was just about to quote Kurt Russell in The Thing: "You've got to be fucking kidding" but I see that we should of course pay close attention to the source of these stories.

However much it has been exagerated tho, it seems most of us would be ready to accept this sorry tale - as reported in the Express - as truth. What does that say about our society, or should we blame it all on hysterical media coverage?

Northern Bright - you are so right about pushing for religion (if people must) to be a purely personal matter, yet it's hard to see this ridiculous indulging of imaginary friends coming to an end.

PS it amused me to read the NHS trust spokeswoman (comment 31) speak of moving beds TOWARDS mecca, rather than merely adjusting their orientation. I can see them now, pushing those beds out into the hospital carpark...presumably a few extra feet closer makes a difference?

4. 'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested

Comment #91030 by celestial_T on November 27, 2007 at 3:00 am

hey notsobad, fair comment re muhammad- although one wonders how much the reality of his existence actually matters once it's been filtered through so much lunacy.

Philip1978 - any take up on the tea duel yet? You don't have long to prepare your strategy - I'd sneak a pot of earl grey in there just to confuse him!

5. 'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested

Comment #90810 by celestial_T on November 26, 2007 at 12:19 pm

If the children chose the name, why aren't they being locked up? surely that would be the logical extension of the law? or would that be bad PR for islam? oh hang on a minute, sorry, I mistakenly used the word 'logical' there, whilst talking about a situation in which someone is being imprisoned and punished for NAMING A SOFT TOY AFTER A MADE-UP PERSON. Hey guys! God is pretend! Didn't anybody tell - oh, what's the point?

(rant over - carry on everyone)

6. Sir David Attenborough on God

Comment #87463 by celestial_T on November 12, 2007 at 7:41 am

as I have said before, Attenborough for King!

great comment about how much more wonderful the mechanisms of evolution are than a mere 'conjuring trick'. and they're filming in the Natural History Museum - a building stuffed from sub-basement to roof with evidence of the true wonders of the natural world. or we could just say 'oh yeah, god did it'....hmmm!

7. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #82975 by celestial_T on October 28, 2007 at 12:08 pm

Wow! just wanted to say, Richard (I can call you that now, can't I ?!), it feels pretty good to have my 'Attenborough for King' campaign endorsed by your good self!

that's made my weekend (shallow prole that I am!)

cheerio!

8. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #82948 by celestial_T on October 28, 2007 at 10:33 am

When's Prof D going to pop his head around the virtual door and tell us whether he'd like a gong?

I like having the queen around to represent us - yes, she is of a different time, but she may be the only public figure we have who displays grace and restraint. old fashioned? maybe, but in our celebrity and chav-oriented society I think a bit of aristocratic behaviour redresses the balance.

alternatively, can I suggest sweeping away the current royal family (figuratively I guess) and making David Attenborough king?

9. Can the rest of us have our planet back?

Comment #57818 by celestial_T on July 21, 2007 at 9:13 am

great stuff - I was listening to this show last night and thought it might end up on this site. interesting to see that some of these arguments are filtering their way through to other platforms, and comedy has to be one of the best ways of getting the message out.

Can I also recommend MB's cheery persecution of David Blaine 'git wizard' - very very funny. this is a subject he comes back to a lot, but a quick search on youtube produces good Room 101 snippet.

10. Messiah

Comment #52538 by celestial_T on June 27, 2007 at 8:03 am

Hi Orion

re your comment 39 - hmmm that's an interesting point! just goes to show DB is a master of the total mindfuck (I believe that's the correct technical term). I suppose the other thing to consider is, do we get a thrill out of being duped and knowing it (but not quite knowing how)? And the answer is - sometimes - yes!

11. Messiah

Comment #52533 by celestial_T on June 27, 2007 at 7:55 am

Philip, Rachel and co - oh thanks a lot for making me think of that can't-bear-to-look glass walking! I only saw it on tv - must've been great to be there for real - but it looked pretty convincing.

Brown is also a master of theatrics of course and I seem to recall he made a great job of building up the angst/anticipation what with claiming to bring his heart rate to a halt etc beforehand. but even so - that did look like real, pointy, slicey glass.... ugh!

12. God Hates the World

Comment #52524 by celestial_T on June 27, 2007 at 7:39 am

Wow. I can see by the number of comments that I'm a bit late arriving at this particular party. These scary crazy people (in the video, not posting - although...) seem to have had quite a bit of attention lately. Clearly they are barking but there can be no doubt that their lunacy has been fed by the content of the bible and the authority they feel they have by quoting god. It's hard to see why people want to live with such hate inside them.

And then, just when you think this is only an extreme case, along comes Wee Flea. Sir, doesn't it wear you down carrying so much bitterness? You seem to be so intent on having an argument (and most definitely the 'full half hour' at that) that you aren't stopping to make a rational assessment of other peoples' comments. It must be quite tiring being so angry all the time. But then again you do seem to have a lot of time on your hands so maybe it doesn't matter.

Urg that song is going round in my head now! where's itunes....

13. Messiah

Comment #52416 by celestial_T on June 27, 2007 at 1:55 am

I'm a big fan of Derren - he really pushes the boundaries and would certainly have been burned as a witch in another century! His Mind Control shows are full of jaw-dropping stuff. Have they been shown in the US?

Re comment 9 Troyboy - read Derren's book for some insight into how he does it (but not as much as you'd hope!). He did some other shows where he explained to some degree, especially about the remote viewing and mind-reading, which is more about leading his subject on to draw/think of what he wants them to. eg with the first section of this he asks the woman drawing the pictures to let images 'sail into your mind' and 'don't go overboard on the details' - and hey, she draws a sail boat!

In his stage show he pulls off an amazing trick and then proceeds to show the audience how he subconsciously guided them to the result he wanted (and was thus able to 'predict' it)

I believe he's honest: he tells you he's going to trick you, and then he does - brilliantly.

clever stuff

14. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Comment #48261 by celestial_T on June 7, 2007 at 8:02 am

I think there are some very interesting points there and what I'd want to say is - and I think we can thus agree at least in some sense - it seems to me that the key issue is not so much x, but more a case of y and that ARRGGGG! listening to McGrath makes me want to cut my own ears off and bury them in a deep hole.

phew.
sorry.
just had to get that out of my system.

(where x = a concrete question which he can't answer and y = some woolly-worded bit of pseudo-intellectual cobblers)

15. Your favorite book in the last 25 years?

Comment #37441 by celestial_T on May 4, 2007 at 1:08 pm

can I agree with Denoir - that Feynman's 'surely you're joking mr feynman' is a magnificent and life-changing book. It certainly altered my approach to things not going the way you expected them to from "oh no!" to "hey, let's see where this takes us; it might be interesting". a valuable life lesson.
also have to say, the Blind Watchmaker doesn't seem to get many mentions, but I vividly recall a moment on a bus in Watford, reading it, and realising that Darwin was right. Thank you, Professor Dawkins, for that. Also I once sent some Jehovah's witnesses off to read it (to their credit they came back the following week clutching a copy, but sadly had failed to get past the first page. sorry RD; I tried.)
Finally - indulge me - best fiction has to be The Secret History by Donna Tartt. No debut novel should be that great.

16. The Damned

Comment #37437 by celestial_T on May 4, 2007 at 12:59 pm

Philip1978,
Yes, I always know where my towel is - bagging me a seat at Milliways.

see you there...

17. The Damned

Comment #37056 by celestial_T on May 3, 2007 at 9:38 am

hi Philip1978 - well, after all, there are few problems that can't be solved by oiling your braincells with a "strong Brownian Motion producer (say a nice hot cup of tea)".

(credit due, as so often, to Douglas Adams.)

cheers!

18. The Damned

Comment #36982 by celestial_T on May 3, 2007 at 2:51 am

Note to self: remember to pack teabags and milk for trip to hell.

not a great video, but it does bring home the fact that religion is, well, all just a bit silly and made up. I suppose people are bound to get a bit tetchy when you point this out to them...

I realise that's not the most insightful contribution to the debate but sorry, I've only had the one cup of tea so far today. Which just goes to show that whatever hell is, it isn't Wales.

19. The Selfish Green

Comment #30617 by celestial_T on April 9, 2007 at 3:28 am

Hi again Logicel

I just dropped by and am glad to see that you have come around to an appreciation of the wondrous Attenborough! I was watching some episodes of Attenborough's Life on Earth again the other day and it struck me that this is a great example of conveying that sense of wonder or non-religious spirituality...who needs a god to feel in awe of this world we live in?
I know that's an obvious point to contributors to this site, but seek out 'Life on Earth' and be reminded of it!

now if I could just get over my Tom Hanks aversion...! (what is it with him?)

20. The Selfish Green

Comment #29826 by celestial_T on April 5, 2007 at 3:23 am

Re 13. Comment #29663 by Logicel

"However, I still cannot appreciate Attenborough--his fabled communicative style smacks too much of the down-home preacher to appeal to me."

Sorry, but have to take issue with you there! Sir D enjoys a rare (and justly deserved) status - at least in the UK - of trustworthiness combined with vast knowledge. Don't under estimate him as a powerful force on any issue he chooses to speak up about. He combines passion and compassion about natural history in a way that has influenced a whole generation, myself included.
Apart from which, I was lucky enough to have a chat with him once over some fossils and I can tell you he is absolutely the most charming man on the planet!
Just had to get that off my chest.
carry on everyone!

21. Richard Dawkins at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival

Comment #28390 by celestial_T on March 29, 2007 at 4:02 am

Yikes! When I first heard McGrath speak I thought 'hmmm, here's a chap who seems quite eloquent and might give a reasonable argument'... but as he went on something strange seemed to be happening in my brain, as though a sticky fog was oozing its way in there to gum up the synapses. I shook my head... I drank some coffee... I stuck my head out the window...no, the fog was still there! It was almost as if the man was...I don't know... talking utter bollocks. Quite disconcerting.
Seriously, though, it seems astounding that a prof of theology (ok, we know it's pretend but let's give him the benefit for a moment) has no actual concrete arguments that he's prepared to put his name to in public. Despite his shameful cash-in on the success of TGD I thought he might have something interesting to say.
He has certainly mastered a fantastic tone of delivery which which in other company might come across as quite impressive - however, contrasted with RD's eloquent plea for objective truth, McGrath sounds positively feeble-minded.

22. Root of All Evil? Discussion

Comment #20407 by celestial_T on February 2, 2007 at 8:51 am

Well, that was quite entertaining, in a shout-at-your-mac kind of way. The presenter was very good. Who is this fathead McVety? he certainly did a fine job all by himself of putting people off him and his views. How does RD keep his cool in the face of such idiocy? - I don't think I've ever seen him flustered and his calm reasoned response to every kind of loon that's paraded in front of him should be celebrated.

I agree with John Phillips's comment (20371): it's good to see these kind of shows out there even if the content is frustrating. Maybe by small increments religion is being brought down to at least a level where people are allowed to ask serious, concrete questions about it - and that's got to be a good thing.

23. Richard Dawkins on the Mike Dickin Show

Comment #13549 by celestial_T on December 18, 2006 at 9:05 am

interesting when Dawkins on, but I've given up on it now, due to the high stupidity-level of callers.

I hope a few popular culture references don't lower the intellectual tone of this strand, but is it me or are these believers starting to sound more and more like Vicky Pollard? Dawkins recommends a choice of reading on evolutionary biology, and most believers come back with some sort of "yeah but no but" retort.

to which I suppose the appropriate atheist response might be "am I bovvered?"

24. Kim Hill interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #13535 by celestial_T on December 18, 2006 at 6:20 am

help! all these enthusiastic comments and I can't get the thing to play on my mac. does anybody know if there is a mac-friendly version around?

25. Sunday Sequence with William Crawley

Comment #12503 by celestial_T on December 12, 2006 at 9:01 am

I've just had to listen again (painful though it was) to some of Andy McIntosh's words, just to make sure I didn't dream it. Now I don't know whether to laugh or cry...but I'm veering towards the latter.

I've just sent an email to the head of ERRI (the dept of Leeds Uni where AM works), cc'd it to various science faculty heads and the scary loon himself. Will post any reply....

Trilobites killed by the Flood? he really didn't think that through did he?

26. God's Inbox

Comment #11940 by celestial_T on December 8, 2006 at 10:21 am

InDesign is indeed a great bit of software, but that name...I'm just wondering...tell me there aren't a load of creationists at Adobe trying to sneak messages into their application titles?!

27. A man who believes in Darwin as fervently as he hates God

Comment #11938 by celestial_T on December 8, 2006 at 10:14 am

Liddle has always annoyed me a bit, but now I see that the man is an idiot - which is disappointing for someone writing for the Spectator.
Here's some random points that occured to me:

I don't quite understand why he sees it as ironic that RD will make money out of TGD. More surprising that Liddle gets paid for turning in such a shoddy piece of copy.

Why is it any time an atheist talks enthusiastically about science and truth they are accused of 'resorting to rhetoric' - aren't we allowed to be passionate about things?

Liddle asks, 'what if Darwin's theory is wrong?'. Surely, even without a Darwinian solution the idea that a weird magical thing that we can't detect made everything is a complete non-explanation anyway?

ok I'm done now!

28. Revealed: rise of creationism in UK schools

Comment #11769 by celestial_T on December 7, 2006 at 7:49 am

I wrote to my MP (Stephen Crabb, cons) about the charming folk at Truth in Science and their helpful mailout, and he tells me that the government has 'actually gone as far as ordering it [the TIS material] to be banned'. not sure how this ties in with the Motion put forward by Graham Stringer. but good news, surely?