1. The amazing intelligence of crows

Comment #181211 by sarah95 on May 16, 2008 at 4:12 pm

The only time in 10 experiments when Betty did not make a hook out of the wire was when Abel managed to bring the food up with straight wire. On other occasions, he waited for Betty to bring out the food then stole it from her.

Drama, drama, DRAMA! I would watch reality television more often if it was only about non-primate animals like Betty and Abel. Animal Planet has a show like that for meerkats, but I think there should be more. Enough whiny college girls and stupid hicks trying to win money: I wanna watch crows play mind games with each other!

2. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #181206 by sarah95 on May 16, 2008 at 3:57 pm

The Resistance says the new image "has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute," Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. "Need I say more? It's extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks."

Ah yes, as always the fringe fundies are not only childish whiny prudes, but sexist as well. So the act of a woman spreading her legs(which isn't exactly what the siren mermaid was doing, but who cares about facts, when you're a fundie?) is by definition an act of "prostitution". It's not merely sexual when a woman is involved, it's prostitution. It was all the same when I went to a Lutheran grade school. Female pleasure is so much SCARIER(and of course in "poor taste') than male pleasure. The teachers tolerated when the boys made jokes about female parts being gross, but wouldn't let a girl say the word penis without punishment.

3. The Neanderthal Debate

Comment #174806 by sarah95 on May 3, 2008 at 3:10 pm

Great video. But the last question at the end was a bit silly. I hate when journalists ask those sort of questions. No, we won't be pulling any Jurassic Park stunts anytime soon, you dullard.

4. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162887 by sarah95 on April 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Now on youtube, for those of you who have trouble with Quicktime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ThQQuHtzHM

Here's my channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sarah95pekoe

5. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162873 by sarah95 on April 17, 2008 at 3:59 pm

WOW! That's amazing! It's good to know you're a sex maniac, Richard! That just about made my day!

Who delivers the stork indeed!

I've been waiting for this ever since RD showed a bit of it at the American Atheists conference.

Wonderful job Josh, Richard, and whoever else was involved!

6. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162411 by sarah95 on April 16, 2008 at 10:27 pm

Comment #162408 by Bigorra

1. When somebody makes me take sides with Yoko Ono, they've gone too far. Dragging John Lennon into their crummy movie for schmaltzy emotional appeal makes me sick. I hope Yoko takes them for everything she can get.

Hear hear!!

2. I will never listen to the Killers again, which coincides well with my policy of not listening to them in the first place.

The licensure decision may have been over the heads of the band. We don't know that they were even involved in the decision. The fact that they haven't recorded anything near-decent since their first album would be a better reason to never listen to the again.

7. For sale: 13-year-old virgin

Comment #160860 by sarah95 on April 14, 2008 at 1:43 pm

This story brought to you by the letters D and M:

Dogma (caste-prostitution, misogyny)

Multiculturalism ("all cultures are 'equal' and to be 'respected' regardless of how people are treated within the culture")

Henri: Maybe the perspective of human rights and minimizing physical harm(ie, rape) to human beings isn't easily justified in any but an emotional way, but that doesn't make it a "frenzied religious" perspective. If the fact that human rights can't easily be justified with objective emotionless facts makes them useless, then I think I (and likely most people here) will have to disagree with you.

8. Inadequate, private and late apology with grotesquely inadequate excuse

Comment #159324 by sarah95 on April 12, 2008 at 12:49 am

It is also possible for an individual to be so pressurized that they resign unwillingly. It used to be called 'doing the decent thing' So yes people can call for Ms. Davis' to resign and that is just an opinion but what seems to be getting going around the hapless representative could so easily degenerate into a witch hunt. Forcing her to resign against her will because she committed a thought-crime would be more serious than Ms Davis' offense.

Atheists have spoken about resignation with full awareness of what witch-hunts are. We've also spoken with full awareness of our own political power. You need political power for a witch hunt, and for very obvious reasons, atheists do not have political power as a group and we probably never will. No one in their right mind would be afraid of a witch hunt carried out by atheists. We can hardly agree even here on this forum. By American standards, witch hunts are serious talk, and to say we risk starting one by chatting on an RD forum about her inadequacies as a representative or emailing her secretary is bordering on ridiculous.

I doubt that if atheists were in the majority, this would even be an issue. Since we're not, it is appropriate to speak a little "louder" to make up for it.

9. Inadequate, private and late apology with grotesquely inadequate excuse

Comment #159323 by sarah95 on April 12, 2008 at 12:40 am

BFKate

If representative davis has done more than express a silly point of view then she should be brought to account. But she is entitled to say what she did and even how she did it.

OF COURSE she "is entitled to say what she did". No one here said she wasn't entitled to her opinion. We only said that she should own up to the opinion, and that as citizens we are allowed to ASK her to leave(either by her own willing resignation, or by simply voting her out).

But she's also entitled to "how she did it"???
Maybe there shouldn't be any real punishment involved, but there was certainly a mis-use of office when she told the man to leave the room. She wasn't just a person who disagreed with him. She was representing the state and simultaneously screaming at him to leave because he's dangerous. If she was just another person at the hearing, no one would really care ("what a loony, i hope she shuts up") but when she's there representing the state, she can't just toss threats around and expect people to think it's excusable just because she was "stressed out" by a kid dying.

Whether or not she should resign is irrelevant. As citizens we DO have the right to simply ask her to do so AND to say that her opinions make her unfit for office(see post #108). The only illegal action against her would be the government sacking her(instead of her resigning or being voted out). Of course, it is legal for the house to vote on whether or not to "reprimand" her, but reprimands do not remove her from office(see post #80).

10. Inadequate, private and late apology with grotesquely inadequate excuse

Comment #159314 by sarah95 on April 12, 2008 at 12:04 am

I think brian_d_w is right:

Monique Davis does not have to face any criminal charges nor civil law suits. Thats the protection afforded to her by the First Amendment.

She is an elected official, this is a privilege not a right. She is in office to represent the will of the people. If she is found to be out of line, it is the right of her constituents to ask her to resign, or force her out. She clearly does not respect or understand the concept of secular government, therefor she has no role in one.

Simply SAYING that she should resign or that she doesn't deserve to hold her office is not a "type of ban" as BFKate said. It's simply stating what we think of the situation. The only way she'd be a victim of a free-speech "ban" was if the government itself banned her(instead of the constituents) or if she was banned from speaking on the issue again. She is a state representative, so even if the laws she helps write are not applied in all states, they still have influence on the legislative climate throughout the country. So, even non-Illinois US citizens such as myself are not violating her free speech rights by saying she's unfit for office. To resign is to leave willingly. Of course she won't do that. But we'll still SAY that she should. It's just an opinion. NO ONE on here has said that she should be ejected by anyone other than her direct constituents(not voting for her in the next election) or herself(resigning).

11. Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher

Comment #159307 by sarah95 on April 11, 2008 at 11:33 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tRpbkpNpgw

12. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #158989 by sarah95 on April 11, 2008 at 9:57 am

To Mr. Dembski: The only reason I am involved in this discussion is because I do not want the reputation of my company, hard-earned as it is, to be sullied by even oblique affiliation to your sort of smarmy ethics, if only through works of ours, purloined to fit your agenda. Last year you were charging colleges thousands of dollars to give lectures showing a copy of The Inner Life of the Cell, you claimed you "found somewhere", with Harvard's and XVIVO's credits stripped out and the copyright notice removed (which is in itself a felony) and a creationist voice-over pasted on over our music (yes, I have a recording of your lecture). Harvard slapped you down for that, and yes there is a paper trail. One can only assume that had we not taken notice then, we would be debating The Inner Life of the Cell being used in EXPELLED, instead of a copy. You have enough of a colorful history that Harvard, in its wisdom, decided to 'swat the gnat' with as little fuss as possible. Imagine our surprise earlier this month, to see our work copied in a movie trailer for EXPELLED! And you are in the movie too! Not quite a star, but brown dwarfs are cool. XVIVO has no intention of engaging alone, in asymmetrical fighting against an ideological entity with orders of magnitude more resources than we have. That might make great theater, but would resemble a hugely expensive game of whack-a-ID. Boring!

Whack-a-ID! I'd pay to play THAT game! Perhaps the closest one can get to paying for such a game is just donating to the NAS or NCSE. Oh well, it was a pleasant thought anyway...
(Would the whacker mallet be a "logic mallet"?)

13. Scientists take drugs to boost brain power: study

Comment #158986 by sarah95 on April 11, 2008 at 9:41 am

I can't wait for a parody of something like "Sex, Drugs, & Science". Guys in labcoats falling all over the place, throwing microscopes out windows and reciting the periodic table in a drunken melody. They could have RD do an interview reminiscing about the bad ol' days when he tried to get into the Royal Society by selling drugs...((only joking!!!))

I agree with above posters: This whole survey sounds a bit wooly to me. The "results" shouldn't be taken too seriously in any online volunteer poll. Besides, self-medication with concentration drugs in academia is not something that needs to be painted as a scandal regardless.

14. Lungless frog discovered in Borneo

Comment #158604 by sarah95 on April 10, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Very interesting. No lungs! Epidermal gas exchange is such a thrilling concept! I wonder what that feels like...

However, a bit of an evolutionary misnomer there:

The aquatic frog has evolved backwards, re-acquiring a primordial trait, David Bickford of the National University of Singapore and colleagues reported.

Things don't necessarily always evolve in a predetermined direction. Not backwards or forwards necessarily, but simply changing.
Correct me if I'm wrong?

15. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156371 by sarah95 on April 7, 2008 at 12:18 pm

The saddest part is not her incoherent hateful nonsense. It's the fact that her long off-topic interruption was not checked by the person in charge. In fact, when she'd finally finished, the person in charge THANKED her for "sharing her point of view" and then warned the atheist to stay on topic, and not to reply to the accusations made against his own personal character. It seems as though discrimination between religions can be outlawed and publicly chastised, but when religion makes an attack on lack of faith, it's just "look the other way."

The Reverend Wright lady needs to be sacked, and to take a constitution class, complete with biographies of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and Abe Lincoln.

16. Upside-down church sculpture on hit list

Comment #154666 by sarah95 on April 3, 2008 at 2:54 pm

But it has now been offered on loan to the city for an extended period -- much to the horror of some area residents, who made impassioned pleas to the board to remove the work that offends both their religious and aesthetic sensibilities.

Now I can understand if people complain about practical things like vandalism or blockages of space, but if a sculpture is already up and displayed legally, then why the hell do people think they're entitled to its removal just because their "sensibilities are offended". My sensibilities are offended by several types of art, but I'd only expect someone to listen to my complaints if they were practical: "It's blocking my window." "It's taking up recreational space." "The display is harmful to the rock/soil in the park." And beside that, if you've got such important sensibilities, you can just run for a seat on the council that decides what sculptures get to be displayed in the park.

17. Pastor attacks scientist's talk

Comment #154653 by sarah95 on April 3, 2008 at 2:40 pm

This sentence smacks of a faith-head interpretation:

Prof Dawkins is an outspoken supporter of Charles Darwin, the 19th Century British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution.

He's a supporter of the parts of Darwin's theory that still stand today. It's been said before, but sometimes when you've been entrenched in religion your whole life you can't understand a worldview where there's no "prophet" who you mindlessly worship and don't question. It's just projection. They don't seem to understand a mindset that evaluates ideas critically and individually instead of just finding some random dude to parrot and copy.

Now I understand that the author may not be a faith-head, but the sentiment is still unscrupulously phrased.

18. Scientists reshape Y chromosome haplogroup tree gaining new insights into human ancestry

Comment #154221 by sarah95 on April 2, 2008 at 11:12 pm

Very interesting. I'd love to have a big tree poster like the one that'll be published with this article. I think a genetic lineage tree would be a great thing to have as an art exhibit, both to showcase the beauty of life and to get people interested in anthropology or other sciences.

When I'm older I'd like to have my mtDNA analyzed to see some of my own biological history. I can't imagine spending money on it at the moment, though. Perhaps a birthday present to myself at a later date!

19. Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'

Comment #153504 by sarah95 on April 1, 2008 at 2:11 pm

But the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the liberal Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Pleasant Grove invited problems by allowing the Ten Commandments monument. "If government creates an open forum, it can't pick and choose among religions," Lynn said in a statement.

Hear hear! I love it when Christians squirm about letting other religions' nonsense commandments into the arena of ostentious public display (often in front of courthouses). You know they only care about religious freedom if it applies to their religion. Some patriotism.

On a slightly unrelated note, like most people, I don't give a flying F*** about the 10 commandments or where they're displayed(ie, the above case), but I don't want my taxes funding some show-off waste of money monument. Spend it on education, research, defense, anything but some stupid religious monument, especially one that's not an equal-opportunity for other religions.

20. Christian Founders 3D Adventure Computer Game

Comment #152979 by sarah95 on March 31, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Comment #152974 by LordSummerisle:

Hey, no need to worry guys, kids never really go for this stuff anyway. If there is one thing pre-pubescent gamers hate, it's edu-games.

They really don't like it when a message gets in the way of good, clean, old fashioned shoot-outs, bloodlettings and gut-spillings. They take one look at this thing and their first reaction is: "M'kay... now, where's my GTA San Andreas?"

I certainly hope you're right. While I find stuff like this game very detestable, I'm not actually too worried about its effects. It's the motivation that makes my blood curdle.

21. Christian Founders 3D Adventure Computer Game

Comment #152976 by sarah95 on March 31, 2008 at 7:28 pm

I feel passionately that the people who spread around such misinformation about our country's history do not deserve their citizenship. I'm not saying it should actually be taken away, but I wish they could be forced into a time machine that takes them back to the physical and intellectual battlefields of our country's birth and makes them LEARN SOMETHING. Fuck-tards.

Few things make me as angry as the people who claim special credit for their religion in "founding this nation" while simultaneously calling the Enlightenment something for European snobs.

22. My quest to get de-baptised

Comment #152399 by sarah95 on March 31, 2008 at 12:19 am

On the face of it the idea seems rather silly: de-baptising? It's not as though you need to physically un-do something. However, the fact that they could use your name to fluff up the statistics is a bit annoying. I may look into that with my old church. They're all rather nice people, and I'd hate to hassle them, but I think I might like to have my name removed IF it's used as a statistic for covering up their empty-pew syndrome. I don't want to hassle them, but I don't want them taking advantage of my sympathy to inflate their reputation either.

23. Iowa county board gives initial OK for ghost hunters to investigate asylum

Comment #151691 by sarah95 on March 29, 2008 at 8:00 am

This is my first post ever but as a student at UofI & resident of Iowa City I had to speak up. This town has a real problem with lots of woo from psychics to the Marahishi Enlightenment Center, and this doesn't surprise me. Maybe staring at corn for too long has some strange affect on people's mind.

HA! As a Minnesotan, I enjoy more than a few jokes at Iowans' expense, but this is just great. I know there are some perfectly sane Iowans, but seeing the headline for this on the RD.net mainpage just made my day.

I agree about the corn thing. Before I got to travel to different parts of the world and country, I thought the bleak flat yellow landscape of the midwest would steal my sanity. It's a good thing we're nice people in the midwest, or I wouldn't have recovered.

24. I always aim to misbehave

Comment #151686 by sarah95 on March 29, 2008 at 7:50 am

When I said "A hero lauding a hero!" I meant to indicate that the quote I referenced was RD's.

25. I always aim to misbehave

Comment #151684 by sarah95 on March 29, 2008 at 7:49 am

PZ is a priceless asset, a hero of our time.

Ha! A hero lauding a hero! Great!

Since all this expelled nonsense has happened, I've been thinking of a song by The Killers (one of their songs was perhaps mischeviously used in Expelled) called "Andy you're a star", with the title in the chorus, and I've been singing "PZ you're a star!" for a while now. Even theists I know who detest ID have heard of PZ now...great!

And RD, if you visit this thread again, go watch the video that Barry Pearson put up! It's a good laugh!

26. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151676 by sarah95 on March 29, 2008 at 7:29 am

I posted my last comment #151675 without knowing that there were 2 more pages of thread, and without having read them. Sorry if what I said was redundant.

27. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151675 by sarah95 on March 29, 2008 at 7:18 am

I think a lot of people here are confusing freethinking and critical thinking. Freethinking is a more vague definition of thinking outside the frames of dogma and being open to new ideas. Critical thinking is more concrete. It is how we evaluate analyse and reconstruct arguments and statements with logic and evidence.

I think children are born not necessarily as freethinkers, but as a template for freethinking, or at least open-mindedness--which is great, but I don't think you can be a born or "natural" critical thinker. You have to learn that, and school early on would be the best place. If someone thinks freely but can't think critically, there's not much point, is there?

Just my two cents. Let me know if I haven't done anything justice.

28. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #150795 by sarah95 on March 27, 2008 at 12:27 pm

The facial reconstruction on the right hand side of the picture looks EXACTLY like my old grade-school principal!

29. Expelled from Expelled: PZ story goes global

Comment #150427 by sarah95 on March 26, 2008 at 10:19 pm

I really don't know who'll be right on this: the people saying this really is bad publicity and it'll hurt, or the people saying it's just going to work as good publicity anyway.
Hopefully, the people in the US that do read movie reviews will be put off by how badly recieved it'll be by critics, and other than that I guess we can only hope it doesn't become influential. Ben Stein is such an ass. Anyone who saw the TV show "Win Ben Stein's Money" from the 90's would know that such stupidity and deceitfulness are not below him.

30. Saudi Arabia Leader Calls for Interfaith Dialogue

Comment #150155 by sarah95 on March 26, 2008 at 1:52 pm

"We have lost sincerity, morals, fidelity and attachment to our religions and to humanity," Abdullah said Monday, deploring "the disintegration of the family and the rise of atheism in the world â€" a frightening phenomenon that all religions must confront and vanquish."

Abdullah's message of tolerance comes at a time of religious tensions caused by the re-igniting of a two-year-old controversy over Danish cartoons deemed by Muslims to be insulting....
The Saudi monarchy has long banned the open worship of other faiths,

Yeah, their message of "tolerance" is so well-reflected in their hate for atheists, women, and every other faith in the world.

Complete BS.

31. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150146 by sarah95 on March 26, 2008 at 1:47 pm

"They are still in the home," he said. "There is no reason to remove them. There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see."

No signs of abuse? BULLSHIT. Lock those monstrous parents up and give the kids access to medical care. No "buts" about it. Any complications of such a punishment and readjustment for the other children cannot possibly outweigh the risks posed to their safety by their mentally ill parents.

32. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150124 by sarah95 on March 26, 2008 at 1:24 pm

I took the opportunity to deliver my birthday wishes for you in person at the American Atheists Conference last weekend, but I'll say it again:

Here's to hoping you live longer than a Giant Tortoise! (I spelled Tortoise wrong in your b-day card! Oh, the shame!)

Thanks for all you've written and done! You've changed my life by changing my mind.

Have a splendid day!

33. Expelled Overview

Comment #149462 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 4:16 pm

Thanks for the point-by-point. I think I'll forward the expelled exposed link to my old high school biology teacher. She's gonna have to fight a battle when hordes of her students bring it up in class.

I hope this can be publicly exposed in the media for what it is: the creationist version of Loose Change. Conspiracy theory. And slanderous mean-spirited conspiracy theory at that, if that bit about doll-ing up Richard Dawkins with make-up is true. Why on earth would RD need make-up? ;)

The more we can point out, as Josh has done, how similar this film's style is to the far-left BS of Loose Change and the bias of Farenheit 9/11, hopefully the target audience will come passionately back to the sort of reasonable middle ground.

34. Evolution Of New Species Slows Down As Number Of Competitors Increases

Comment #149406 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 3:06 pm

Comment #149287 by davem

Didn't we always know this? I certainly thought that this was obvious stuff.

I think you're right. I learned this in Ecology and Biology classes a while ago, and the discussion I referenced in my last comment mentioned this concept.

It's still interesting to hear about research and new evidence for it though...

The new study used detailed analysis of the family trees, or phylogenies, of 45 different bird families. By examining the rate at which new species have arisen in each of these trees over a period of millions of years, scientists saw that the rate of appearance of new species seemed to be much higher in the early stages of the family tree, compared to more recent lower rates.

35. Evolution Of New Species Slows Down As Number Of Competitors Increases

Comment #149264 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 11:04 am

Great article! Ecology has always been one of the most interesting areas of biology to me.

This reminds me of something that was said during a recorded discussion on evolution at the Natural History Museum between Richard Dawkins, Lewis Wolpert and Steve Jones. In talking about complexity, they mentioned the fact that a finite number of supportable niches may be what drove evolution towards complexity. Niches for simple organisms were simply running out.

36. The Atheist Apocalypse

Comment #149024 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 1:37 am

Comment #146335 by Koreman

Great comic, but it is not based on real future events. Horseman Equality talks about genital mutilation of girls only.

Well, if it's a comic, it's not supposed to be based on real future events, now is it? The point of talking about the future was to accurately show what the Horsemen want, instead of what some worried moderates think the Horsemen want. Whether any of it will happen doesn't matter as much.

As for genital mutilation, Hitchens and Harris have talked about circumcision a lot. To hear Hitchens talk about it, simply listen to his Seattle and Toronto speeches and Q & A, along with several of his radio interviews. Also, I was at the American Atheists conference this weekend in Minneapolis, and while there were no groups present as advocates against FGM(it's kind of a default position for most people already), there was a group with it's own booth promoting the rights of men and boys and handing out anti-circumcision literature. They were even taking donations. Make no mistake, male circumcision is getting plenty of bad press from The Horsemen or New Atheists or whatever silly name we want to put on them.
While mainstream conversation usually tends to focus on FGM, atheist conversation of late has taken a fairer appraisal and been very critical of MGM.

37. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #149017 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 1:09 am

It would be great if RD could write a little "in summary" piece to let everyone know how the US tour went.

38. Sue Blackmore debates Alister McGrath

Comment #149014 by sarah95 on March 25, 2008 at 12:05 am

I've only gotten about half way through this, and I can say I really enjoy Sue. I've not read anything of hers, but I may do so later now that I've heard her speak.

However I am disappointed that she didn't tear to bits that horrible "stalin card" that Alister so ineptly played in his first bit. Also I wish she'd pointed out how deceptively dishonest it was of McGrath to actually say that Dawkins thinks science positively "disproves god". That I think was a point worth pursuing and clarifying, but she left it instead to talk about memes, which was interesting as well.

39. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #148670 by sarah95 on March 23, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Thanks, Richard. This was great. I've found your review of the "film" the most informative yet. I am ashamed that the ignorant and malicious audience came from my home state.

The bit I found most entertaining was this gem:

As for the implication that I might have flown all the way from England to see his disreputable film, the very idea is as ludicrous as the film itself. Like PZ Myers, I was in Minneapolis for the conference of the American Atheists.

Theism and conspiracy theory do tend to make people think the world revolves around them.

40. EXPELLED!

Comment #148001 by sarah95 on March 21, 2008 at 6:46 pm

Congrats Richard on getting in!
I was glad to be regailed with the tale today at the American Atheists conference when you spoke. I must say I was pleasantly surprised that your talk was unique from all the ones that I had watched online. You talked about things I'd not yet heard you talk about, and every minute of the Q and A session was enlightening and brilliant. The "Expelled: No Storks Allowed" video was brilliant as well.
As for PZ, he certainly made the best of it by putting it all on pharyngula for the world to see and report on! Leave no creationist foible un-reported!

41. Flipping particle could explain missing antimatter

Comment #146649 by sarah95 on March 19, 2008 at 8:55 am

The real proof could come later this year when the Large Hadron Collider switches on at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC-b experiment has been designed specifically to study mesons containing bottom quarks. "LHC-b will make an unambiguous measurement within two months," says Gibson.

I can't wait!
;)

42. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146644 by sarah95 on March 19, 2008 at 8:47 am

"Happily, homosexuality can be turned around," Mr Rogers says in a clip of his show, Turnaround, on youtube.com. "Homosexuality is out of tune with religion; it is not what God planned for human sexuality."

And you just KNOW that this guy, like almost every male I've ever met, LOVES watching lesbian porn. I guess hypocrisy and "scripture following" go hand in hand.

43. They prayed to cast Satan from my body

Comment #145381 by sarah95 on March 17, 2008 at 2:18 pm

"It is difficult to explain, in a logical sense. I know how very wrong the treatment, their program and their approach is, but the wounds are still quite deep, and even though I know that they were wrong, there is still a part of you that just even now wants to be accepted by Mercy."

"They told me that what happens in Mercy stays in Mercy, that what happens between the staff and Naomi stays at Mercy. It is not let out to the family," Julie Johnson said. "We were isolated, we were not involved in her progress at Mercy, we were just excluded and yet we were a family that wanted to be behind her and they wouldn't allow us to be."

"She went into that place as a young lady and came back to us as a child. She was very confused, like she was 12 or 13. She shut herself in the bedroom and thought she was nothing but evil. Her self-esteem went down. She thought, 'I may as well die."'

Before long, Smith began to harm herself in other ways. Again she alerted the staff to her concerns. They reprimanded her for wasting their time, calling her a "fruitcake", she said.

Canham-Wright has asthma, and yet she was prevented from having her ventolin with her at all times, she said.
"Every time I had an asthma attack they told me to stop acting … I was punished, I had to do an assignment about why God believes that lying is wrong.

And yet Mercy continues to operate without the scrutiny of government authorities, under the radar and with impunity.

Absolutely sickening. Especially the last part. That's what I really fear, is the fact that these people could potentially never be prosecuted and their facilities shut down. I have athsma, and if someone denied me my inhaler while I was unstable, I can't even think of what I would do. How the hell can someone be expected to deal with issues of mental illness when even breathing takes effort? My dad's an immunologist, and he's had young female patients with athsma die when anxiety problems threw them off. To deny someone like that medication....I can't imagine. And all the other abuses listed. I would hope that someone does a TV expose and a pressure campaign on the govt to "crack down" as it were and prosecute and shut down the place.

I agree with Gibster. This sounds a lot like the crazy Scientology programs that deny mentally ill people their medication. In the case of Scientology, we know of people that have died/killed, but I certainly hope that can be prevented in this case.

This is a perfect example of what Dawkins meant in TGD by psychological harm outstripping physical harm done by religion. And of course, moderates will cry out, "Oh, but this isn't REALLY religion, Jesus would never want THIS to happen. They're just fanatics." Then the rational response would be, "OK, if they're dangerous fanatics, then why don't we intervene, prosecute, and shut the place down?" And of course, the moderate reply would be, "Oh, but you can't legislate against someone's religious beliefs, even if they're fringe. We need to be tolerant. Big bad government shouldn't be meddling in religious affairs."

I hear that kind of non-thinking displayed all the time by moderates. They simultaneously call the fanatics "not REALLY a religion" and say that their fanaticism is not to be blamed on religion, and then go on to defend them from prosecution and regulation by saying it's a "religious matter" that the government can't meddle in.

I understand that moderates don't actually commit the same crimes that fanatics do, but they excuse them way too easily, through processes of non-thought and bias.

44. Selling science to the masses

Comment #144381 by sarah95 on March 15, 2008 at 9:40 pm

uggh. I cringe everytime this issue is brought up because the communication and literacy problem between scientists and lay-people should NOT always have to be blamed on scientists!! WHY is it that no one even bothers to propose what lay-people might do to help the situation? They just get to sit there while scientists have to dance around the room and impress THEM enough to get them to un-glue the eyeballs from American Idol?

No. I may sound crass, but if you're going to ignore science and work actively to stigmatize it, then you deserve to get burned. All science needs to do is communicate clearly and factually and with a unified voice when an issue needs to be examined or legislated on by lay-people.

Otherwise, if people want to stick their heads in the sand against the advice of the rational man in a labcoat who doesn't speak in soundbites and slogans, they shouldn't come crying when a seagull bites their ass. I know there are some circumstances in which this doesn't apply because we all really can be "in the same boat" at times, but when the US economy tanks and people loose their jobs to techies in India, they can blame the PUBLIC's lack of interest and respect for science education, and kindly stop whining to scientists.

45. Full house captivated by atheist Dawkins' take on religion

Comment #142625 by sarah95 on March 12, 2008 at 10:30 pm

But then this also gets to the meat of the education question: are we just elitist, educated assholes making fun of people who are uneducated...?

No. Telling the truth and criticizing dogma is not "elitist", at least not in the negative context in which you choose to use the word. And please don't play the "class card". Being educated doesn't make you an asshole. Wealth/education and religion are not mutually exclusive. If they were, religion would have no power in the world.

46. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #138111 by sarah95 on March 4, 2008 at 12:34 am

Bonzai said:

It seems that the fan boys and girls just want to admire their idol up close so that they can chatter for days how handsome and well spoken he is.

I don't think this kind of mini personality cult is healthy for supposedly rational people.

I am probably going to be blasted for blasphemy.

I think you're exaggerating a bit. Just because I happen to think that Dawkins IS handsome and well-spoken, doesn't mean I think it's a fact. It's my opinion, and I'm not ashamed of it, as you obviously think I should be. And there's no blasphemy worries on this site.

Yes, I'll go to see him when he comes to Minneapolis for the American Atheists conference on March 21st, but he's not the only reason I'm going to that conference. Even if he was, I would go to enjoy hearing RD speak. Enjoying something doesn't make you irrational.

And as for "regurgitating" RD's arguments, I would concede that most of us here agree with his arguments, but not on a "blasphemy" basis. There is quite a lot of spirited debate on this site, on various subjects, if you haven't noticed.

I wouldn't say there's really a "cult of personality" around RD, but if there was, it would only be irrational if this was a site where debate was frowned upon, which it obviously isn't.

47. Dispatches: Holy Offensive

Comment #135409 by sarah95 on February 28, 2008 at 11:18 pm

The best part of this series for me was the bits with Mr. Bean! What a funny and sensible man!!
GO BEAN!

48. Sea reptile is biggest on record

Comment #135246 by sarah95 on February 28, 2008 at 6:45 pm

"A large pliosaur was big enough to pick up a small car in its jaws and bite it in half."

The sea-monster equivalent of what Dawkins does to theist and creationist arguments...
;)

49. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #134651 by sarah95 on February 28, 2008 at 4:21 am

Wow, that was awesome. Well done Josh and Richard! Tortises are so fun to watch. The shots of iguanas and finches were great too, as was Richard's voice and explaination.

After watching the bit where he's walking along on the beach pondering the beauty of life from a Darwinian point of view, I realized that what I was watching was exactly what my own personal nerd version of "Baywatch" would be...
;)

Keep 'em coming Richard!

50. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #134521 by sarah95 on February 27, 2008 at 11:56 pm

36. Comment #134356 by PLAYBALL on February 27, 2008 at 4:15 pm:

I love Richard's enthusiasm and his voice is very sexy!!

Ha! I totally agree! His voice is 2/3 of the reason I listen to these interviews instead of just ignoring them. The other third is because I want his enthusiasm for engaging theists and making them look as silly as they really are to rub off on me!
Otherwise, I'd probably be more likely to just ignore these kind of interviews for the simple reason that the same questions are asked, with mostly the same responses each time.