1. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #151522 by salgiambruno on March 28, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Happy Birthday Dear Professor!

It will be an easy date to remember - one day after my own . .

Live Long and Prosper

2. A New Pope

Comment #140565 by salgiambruno on March 7, 2008 at 9:45 pm

ROFLMAO!

3. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #139447 by salgiambruno on March 5, 2008 at 9:09 pm

What? Is Los Angeles not big enough for a visit? We have one of the largest Archdiocese in the country here for crying out loud - and a Mormon Temple to boot!

Sheesh, not having an event to attend, I may get bored and end up going to church . . . not.

Too bad we can't get Professor to moderate one of our upcoming presidential debates - then maybe some intelligent questions might be asked of the candidates. It's so pathetic - god bless this, and god bless that . . . puhlease. And then there's Mike Huckabee, wanting to amend the US Consitution to make it comply with the bible - what a moron. Does he really think his stupid-ass evangelicals are the only people in the country whose opinions and values matter? Or is he so freakin' deluded that he actually believes that a majority of people are still so fundamental in their beliefs about sky fairies that they would appreciate an amendment that would dilute one of the greatest documents to ever grace the face of this earth?

Did I mention Mike Huckabee is a moron?

4. Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer

Comment #131184 by salgiambruno on February 22, 2008 at 3:31 am

Ehrman's book is now available in audio format (MP3, iPod, etc) at audible.com.

5. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #131183 by salgiambruno on February 22, 2008 at 3:27 am

If you think this was good, go to the BBC iPlayer and check out last week's Apocalypse Bus Tour episode of BBC2's sublime Wonderland series.

Only plays in the UK . . .

6. The Lava Lizard's Tale

Comment #131166 by salgiambruno on February 22, 2008 at 3:06 am

Very well done. But Professor could use some color on those legs :) He should get out more often!

The feeling Professor must have experienced being there at Galapagos must have been similar to that which I felt when visiting the La Brea Tar Pits here in my back yard. It never ceases to amaze me everytime I look around, to think that Sabre-Toothed cats once roamed the neighborhood. Or how, on Santa Catalina Island, not more than a few tens of miles away there once roamed not long ago, herds of Pygmy Mammoths (I know, Pygmy and Mammoth, a contradiction in terms) . . .

This stuff is all around us. It is us - we are it.

7. Whale Evolution

Comment #131137 by salgiambruno on February 22, 2008 at 2:16 am

This so-called "discovery" only adds more gaps to the transitional fossil record . . . darn it, the paleontologists need to stop digging these things up!

"Evolution is not directed towards a goal. Therefore, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRANSITIONAL FORM!"

I think the term "transitional" form is not meant to imply or describe an incompletely evolved or otherwise inadequate form, but rather, a transitional form is a phenotype (form) that falls between two further-separated, distinct forms. Transitional as I understand it means "related to" on the same evolutionary timeline.

Evolution does not have an "arrow" of time, borrowing from a concept used in discussions of physics. There is no necessary path or direction that evolution must follow, and no specific destination. Evolution is guided only by selective pressures. At any given time, any form is more or less perfectly adapted to its environment. Every living thing existing today is equally adapted to its environment. Whales are no more nor less "evolved" than say, rattlesnakes in Arizona.

8. A Letter From Hell

Comment #129722 by salgiambruno on February 19, 2008 at 2:01 pm

What if monkeys fly out my butt?

Would that make me a cannibal?

Stupid questions, stupid answers . . .

Friends don't let friends drink and pray.

BTW, how in the world did the dead guy find the time to write a letter from Hell anyway?

9. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #129720 by salgiambruno on February 19, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Professor Dawkins was utterly passive throughout this discussion - quite a disappointment, as I expect and expected him to be more the champion of the atheist philosophy. Please, let's put our money where our mouth is (more often), Professor.

I can imagine, however, that passivity might be an effective tactic aimed towards not alienating the overwhelming majority. Was that the case here, I don't know, but I was bored with all the Pollyannaism.

Still, I think he could have been a bit more vocal, and not so kumbaya throughout the session.

What happened to coming OUT!

Too bad Hitch wasn't there . . .

10. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129617 by salgiambruno on February 19, 2008 at 11:33 am

I just puked . . . again.

11. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #129368 by salgiambruno on February 19, 2008 at 3:02 am

I just puked . . . again.

Indeed, "the TRUTH will prevail!"

12. Hitchens and Boteach Debate on God

Comment #128890 by salgiambruno on February 18, 2008 at 7:16 am

Boteach asks where is all the evidence for the countless permutations required to prove the theory of evolution, while in the same sentence he mentions all the petroleum we've dug up . . . well duh, where the hell does he think all that petroleum came from anyway?

This debate was a BIG win for Hitchens, and one of his best performances yet.

13. Interview with Michael Behe

Comment #116085 by salgiambruno on January 25, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Is Behe a glutton for punishment or what?

Even after having had his lame arguments in support of ID smacked down by the Supreme Court and becoming the laughing stock of the REAL science community so many years ago, he's still trying to pawn his lame book of bad science off on the uninformed.

What a Loser!

14. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #115933 by salgiambruno on January 25, 2008 at 4:33 am

I enjoyed reading the comments here more than the clip itself. Very good observations all around!

FOX's claim to be Fair and Balanced is true, but only to the extent that one believes that secular truths must necessarily be tempered by mysticism and an assortment of the other neurotic reactions and behaviours exhibited by the right-wing religious paranoids and their related interests.

Yes, I think organized religion IS running scared. I hear it all the time, "this country and religion is under attack" say the conservative religious pundits, as if "attack" were the proper term to describe the real progress finally being brought about by science and rational thinking.

D'Arcy: thanks for the "Index Librorum Prohibitorum." More material to add to the list of MUST READ authors.

15. Enemies of Reason

Comment #115822 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Dawkins at his best! We love you Richard!!!

16. Send In the Clergy!

Comment #115817 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 9:11 pm

That's just what we need, guidance from corrupt swindlers and child molesters and the wisdom from an ancient text, to ensure that we behave rationally.

Speaking for some of us, this is absolutely not necessary. On the other hand, we would have a lot of religious types to maintain in a state of sedation, and what better way to accomplish that than with the proven mind-control techniques practiced by organized religion!

17. Chimps beat humans in memory test

Comment #115442 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 7:49 am

That's my boy . . .

18. Highway to hysteria

Comment #115440 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 7:47 am

Just like used-car salespersons (gender-neutral terms sound weird), hanging out on the side of the highway waiting for someone to break down so they can sell them another wreck.

"get people plugged in to the church" - yeah, just like a Unimatrix into The Borg Collective. Plug'em in and bleed'em dry.

I don't think these people are sick, at least not some of them like the organizers and their lapdogs - in fact, some of them are very intellignet, greedy bastards hijacking what might otherwise be a *legitimate* (ouch) religion in their mission to exploit the authentically sick and feeble of mind who lack reason and/or any will to excercise it . . .

Fuckwits, I like that term . . .

19. Sherri Shepherd needs to go away now

Comment #115426 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 7:24 am

Typical gospel-spewing dimwit.

You would think one might want to know a little more about the nature, history and claims being made by the belief system one hase endorsed to carry one's sorry ass into eternity . . . but hey, one taxi cab is just as good as another, right?

20. Riding with Rocinante: 'It's me or the crucifix'

Comment #115410 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 6:59 am

Bravo Tosti!

The way I am interpreting this story is that what the defenders of crucifixes are basically arguing is that, if the cultural space currently occupied by Catholicism (Christianity) in Italy were to become a neutral space, and the government were to relinquish any bias it may keep as to what religion may occupy that space, then any other religions would have the opportunity to fill that space, so to speak.

That's a weak argument for keeping crucifixes and religion intertwined with a secular government. Why not instead neutralize the religious bias altogether, and fill the space with real secular values? Must that space be necessarily occupied by values that are seen to be derived from some religion or another? Why can those values not be disassociated from religion and be claimed secular instead? After all, values and morality, though thought by some to derive from God and Religion are in fact human, secular products.

To Incredulous:

Tosti is being tried because he is taking a stand to defend the Italian constitution. The court was willing to accomodate him by providing him with a separate courtroom which did not have a crucifix, but Tosti wouldn't be satisfied with that. In principle, he argues that all symbols of religion should be removed.

As an Italian-born myself, I would be emabarassed a great deal more about the two-faced nature of the Atheist professor had I not been comforted in the knowledge that Italy is progressing towards secularism much more rapidly than the U.S.

Goodness be to Mithra!

21. Secret Swami - About Sai Baba

Comment #115388 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 6:18 am

It appears that the Sai Baba and the Catholic Church have at least a few things in common.

But what really disgusted me more than anything about this documentary, were the Rahm parents. What fakes! They're the ones who ought to be dragged off to prison as I see it. All along they were in it for the money. They got their free estate and milked Baba for all they could. Then, Baba got tired of them and they were no longer the Golden Children, so they finally put an end to the abuse suffered by their son, but only as a tool (once again) to use against Baba as extortion.

Makes me sick. Does anyone else see it this way? Both Mr. and Mrs. Rhama appeared to me transparently fake and money-hungry, not giving a damn about how many times their poor soon had to take it in the arse, or elsewhere for that matter. Did I mention this story makes me sick?

22. Jumbo shrimp, creationist astronomy

Comment #115350 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 4:30 am

Science is only useful to the religious to the extent that it is practical for them in the natural world, governed by natural laws, and to the extent that it does not contradict their religious beliefs, which can and does, on more occasions than you'll find them admiting, save their hides from eternal damnation.

It's no mystery that most religious fanatics, when stricken by illness, will make a b-line to the hospital, as opposed to running off to church or pulling out their prayer beads. Ironically enough, they often take to prayer while at the hospital, and when the fine doctors and hard-earned solutions provided by science saves their sorry asses, they then are able to credit their god-damned prayers for the "miracle."

23. Jesus ad angers church groups

Comment #115347 by salgiambruno on January 24, 2008 at 4:02 am

" . . . a tacky and offensive exploitation of religious imagery . . . "

As opposed to what, a tasteful and effective exploitation of religious imagery, maybe?

Let's see, where have we seen this marketing device used over and over and over again?

The con-artists really hate competition . . . reminds me of the drug and gang turf wars I've read about, with a difference being that the religious institutions use more civilized tactics and language.

24. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #112684 by salgiambruno on January 17, 2008 at 8:09 pm

The book is NOW AVAILABLE on AUDIBLE.COM!

25. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #112445 by salgiambruno on January 17, 2008 at 6:35 am

Isn't it about time we stop putting up with this sort of crap???

Where is separation of church and state when we still allow prayer to be recited at city council meetings and have to work in an environments where big signs are allowed to be posted that read "God Bless America" and where even at work you constantly get junk mail from co-workers laced throughout with references to god?

I'm sick of it!

If the better-third of this country's people don't take a stand now - we're all doomed.

Thank GOODNESS for reasoning people . . .

P.S. - Be sure to check out Bad Religion's latest album "New Maps of Hell" - it helps let off some steam!