1. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160311 by JHS on April 13, 2008 at 11:35 pm

And as if this tosh needed a capper, his little qualification at the bottom ("Of course,...") completely undermines the rest of his argument. It's awfully hard to pat a religion on the head for having pretty churches while they basically continue to wage war on gays, women, atheists, other religious delusionals, science, civil liberties, etc.

2. Rep. Davis: The Worst Person in the World

Comment #158547 by JHS on April 10, 2008 at 5:44 pm

I almost laughed out loud when I heard about this, it was so incredibly absurd. And I suppose it's something that she apologized (props to Sherman for accepting it so gracefully; I honestly think I would ve lunged at her if I had been in his position during the testimony. lol)....that crazy homophobic woman in the Oklahoma House, who said that gays such as myself are more dangerous to America than terrorists, is still belligerently sticking to her hateful guns...

But people are right...this is a shining example of just how WILDLY misunderstood our history and the founding of our country is and how INSANELY insecure, brash, and hateful religious types get at the mere thought of atheism/atheists. That's what gets me...they're so goddamn wild for Jesus that a mere idea sends them into a squirming, spitting rage? Methinks they protest too much...maybe that faith they're yammering about all the time isn't so ironclad after all...*gasp*

3. Islam's Silent Moderates

Comment #101070 by JHS on December 19, 2007 at 7:18 pm

In all honesty, I don't see much of a place for moderation in any theistic religion, least of all Islam. As many have said, RD included, "moderates" are simply doing it wrong. "Moderates" can squirm and rationalize (to use the term lightly) and say, well actually I'm fine with abortion, homosexuality, usury, equality for women, etc etc ad infinitum, but the fact of the matter is that faith on any level legitimizes the worst of the worst and removes reason and self-responsibility from the equation. The Muslim Council of Britain was obviously sweating bullets over the teddy bear incident, and though they relented and bit their own tongues enough to call it a "misunderstanding" (a misunderstanding!), in how many other instances has the MCB, and the Anglican Church(/ArchB of Canterbury), and [the list goes on], completely and totally shown their asses in either defending the indefensible or protesting simple expressions of opinion concerning reason.

They squeak out "misunderstanding" regarding an absurd corruption of logic and human rights and rail against, say, a measure against hate crimes, essentially using the excuse that it is their religious right to hate! And goodness knows "beliefs" (read: unilateral dictums from men for whom, as Harris says, the wheelbarrow would be emergent technology) trump basic compassion and human dignity.

And by "they" in the previous paragraph I include the MCB, the Vatican, the Catholic League in the US, the Southern Baptist Convention, etc. The extent to which the Vatican has gotten its panties in a wad over The Golden Compass -- and now gloats about its box office failure -- should be read by any reasonable person as absolute desperation. I've rambled on a bit, but I do believe that Ali is entirely correct in bemoaning the silence of moderates, because they are second in line in complicity to the fundamentalists.

4. Holy Nonsense

Comment #100410 by JHS on December 18, 2007 at 3:17 pm

I honestly don't know which is the more terrifying prospect, Romney or Huckabee. It's sickening how they're all going to such lengths to prove who is really the most backward and ignorant ("I don't believe in evolution or global warming!" "Well *I* don't believe in evolution, global warming, gravity, OR math! So ha!")

AND that this is what part of electorate wants! It's maddening. If we ever again have a wise, learned person who I could actually, fully respect (*gasp*) as president, I might drop dead from shock.

5. Borders Tags Atheist Book with 'O Come All Ye Faithless' Cards

Comment #100383 by JHS on December 18, 2007 at 2:42 pm

"Christians have always been used to being punch bags"

HOW can someone possibly say that with a straight face?