1. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162925 by October Mermaid on April 17, 2008 at 5:08 pm

have you guys seen the stuff that PZ "gentleman" has said about this issue on his site? I don't know what pharyngula is, but I'm assuming it's some kind of attack on honest, hard-working storkists.

Probably some kind of tentacle.

2. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162923 by October Mermaid on April 17, 2008 at 5:06 pm

As a.. sex.. MANIAC! I ap-proof.. of this.. video!

3. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #148778 by October Mermaid on March 23, 2008 at 10:47 pm

This whole fiasco has left me feeling conflicted.

On the one hand, I want to go see a movie with Dawkins and the gang.

On the other, I don't think I could sit through Expelled.

4. EXPELLED!

Comment #147603 by October Mermaid on March 21, 2008 at 12:30 am

Gosh, I feel so bad for Richard. PZ got a regular miracle, being spared this garbage, but nobody saved Dr. Dawkins. He actually had to put up with the movie.

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

Comment #121061 by October Mermaid on February 2, 2008 at 11:06 pm

You know, after seeing how poorly Simmons did in this debate and how he didn't even bother to do any real research, I decided to look up his book, What Darwin Didn't Know, at amazon.com.

It's got mostly positive reviews! What's up with that? Apparently William Dembski co-authored it, so that makes it even less likely to be factual.

Michael Behe also has mostly positive reviews on that site, it seems. This troubles me. I haven't read the books, so I can't just give a negative review, but maybe some of the more scientifically minded people here have.

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

Comment #120765 by October Mermaid on February 2, 2008 at 1:02 pm

PZ is the coolest. I'm glad this is getting lots of attention on several sites, especially since Dembski and friends would love nothing more than to pretend it never happened. That's sort of the modus operandi of creationists.

7. Belief in Belief

Comment #117455 by October Mermaid on January 28, 2008 at 9:39 pm

I'm not about to compare myself to Mother Teresa (since I don't know a whole ton about her), nor will I say I'm in any way representative of most Christians, but I know that when I WAS a christian and i had major doubts, I would begin trying to do more charitable things and redoubling my efforts to "convert" friends and strangers because I thought that was what a real Christian was supposed to do.

I would ask Christian friends and "superiors" and they would say "Well, it's not that you feel obligated to do it, no. When you're a Christian, you just WANT to." Well, I never really wanted to. I found it uncomfortable and unpleasant, and yet I still did it because I thought this would prove I really WAS a Christian and I was doing the right thing. It was a really unpleasant time and led to many embarassing apologies later to friends I had hounded with my religious beliefs.

Even as bad as all that was, I'm still finding myself wishing I could still believe in a God. Maybe I'm just one of the weak or ignorant people that can't get by without one, but it's caused me some serious and profound distress just in the last few weeks trying to deal with my new almost certainty that there is NOTHING after death. I haven't gotten over it yet and I wonder if I ever will.

8. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #115883 by October Mermaid on January 25, 2008 at 1:37 am

Lately, I've almost begun to wish I hadn't read the book at all. I haven't finished it, but it definitely led me to feel pretty lousy. Granted, I believe what it says to be true, and yet...

I wonder if I'm one of those weaker people who needs some kind of religion. I don't know why none of this really bothered me before. I've been an athiest for more or less three years or so now. But I always sort of had a half-belief in the back of my mind that maybe there WAS an afterlife. If not for me, for others I cared about. But now, believing that there's nothing for anyone is almost too much for me. I don't know if I'm even capable of dealing with that.

For example, I went through some old boxes yesterday and found a small collection of random objects that had meant something to my parents. There were pens, an open pack of cigarettes and little notes that had obviously held some sort of special meaning. When they die, the memories and meaning associated with these things will die with them. It would be better not to save such things at all.

Then I found old school ID cards for both of them when they were children, smiling and having no possible way of knowing how things would end up. That, somehow, was the worst. In fact, I wish I hadn't found the box at all.

A friend of mine tells me that the reason I'm even worrying about this is because I'm so far along Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I'm comfortable, not hurting for shelter or food, and so I have time to worry. She suggests that I'd be better served putting myself out there and doing anything I can to just NOT think about this. Is that the only solution? I'm not even sure I would want it to work, if it is.

I don't know. I'm having difficultly really getting at the heart of whatever this problem is. I suspect if Dr. Dawkins or someone like him heard this story, they would regard me with some kind of contempt and for all I know, they would be right to do so.

9. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #115245 by October Mermaid on January 23, 2008 at 7:37 pm

I'm not sure how well I'll be able to explain why I worry about non-existence so much, but I'll try my best. I just want to appologize first for taking up so much time like this and more or less being foolish.

I guess, for one thing, I won't be having any children so that's one major way in which I won't be really "living on."

I guess sometimes when I think about it too hard, it makes me think that technically I was a biological waste of time to even exist, since I haven't passed on my genes. Or would that maybe mean that I'm more of an evolutionary dead end? For all I know, maybe I have really flawed or poor genes and something on the biological level is the thing that's caused me to not pass on those genes, all the while making it seem like it's my concious decision.

One of the things that troubles me most is that people I care about or look up to will also not exist when they die. I suppose I want their lives to have a meaning or importance more than I want it for my own. It seems really terrible that they basically vanish at death, almost as though someone hit the delete key and took it all away at once.

That sort of thing, I suppose. Sorry, that was a bit more rambly than I'd expected.

10. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #114806 by October Mermaid on January 22, 2008 at 10:16 pm

I think you're right in thinking all of that, AllanW. Thanks for the reply, as well. I do feel a bit better about it all.

I suppose it'll just be a slow process of shifting my perspective away from the false promises that being raised and inundated with religion have given me. I'm not sure how long that will take, but in a strange way, some of the things that sometimes worry me can also bring comfort.

For example, I worry what will happen to my hopes and dreams and memories when I die. But on the other hand, I don't even know why I have any of these things now. Maybe they mean something or maybe nothing, but they ARE there and that kind of makes me hopeful, as well. Maybe it's just the result of a nervous system that got too self-aware for its own good or maybe there are scientific explanations for memories and what we think of as a "soul" that are still to come. Either way, maybe it IS something to take some pleasure in. For whatever reason, it does exist. So maybe that means something.

Anyway, I really appreciate the replies and I feel a bit embarassed for making such a fuss. Dr. Dawkins rightly says that the universe owes us no comfort, but I'm really touched that fellow human beings would go out of their way to try to provide it to someone else, simply because they could. I suppose I can take comfort in knowing that, as well.

11. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #114332 by October Mermaid on January 22, 2008 at 1:11 am

It's odd how deeply this has affected me. I don't think heaven or hell sound particularly great, either, honestly. An eternity in bliss singing praises to God sounds like something that would drive you insane. And how can we possibly imagine eternity? Everything of any value in life has that value because it's finite.

I guess that's why they sell hell so hard, sort of to say "Sure, heaven may not be great, but it's sure better than THIS."

But on the other hand, I'm almost as disturbed by the idea of not existing. How do all of you deal with it? Is it something you just get used to? It's silly of me, but I still find myself half hoping maybe we do survive the death of the brain. But I just really doubt it. Even if we did, what could it possibly be? Nothing makes sense in that regard. None of the options, even if I WERE to seriously consider a religious afterlife as possible, nothing sounds that appealing.

I already mentioned why eternity in any place is unpleasant. And reincarnation doesn't work, either, because you would be something different each time. If you're something different again and again, one of your lives in this never-ending string really has no meaning or importance.

But the same is true of the most likely outcome: non-existence. It still kind of takes away the meaning of life in a way. I mean, it kind of does, even if you learn to deal with it, doesn't it? What about all your hopes and dreams? Or personal tragedies? Or people who lived unfulfilling or dissapointing lives? Or simply unfair ones, where they never knew any real happiness?

I don't know. I'm rambling and I'm sure I'm getting on the nerves of more mature athiests who probably had little to no trouble with any of this, so I appologize.

12. Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Comment #114290 by October Mermaid on January 21, 2008 at 7:36 pm

I didn't think to mention before, but I live in Texas. So, having sent this letter, I feel like someone trying to stop a charging rhino by holding out my hand.

Oh well. I guess I don't really know what else to do or what I even CAN do in this situation.

13. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #114068 by October Mermaid on January 21, 2008 at 10:01 am

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate them!

I do hope it's something I can work through relatively soon. I'll be reading the book and thinking "Hmm, I should look this up so I can understand it better..." and then, on the heels of that thought, I'll get a more despairing one along the lines of "Oh, who cares if I understand it? After all, when I die, it won't matter what I did or didn't understand. All my knowledge will dissapear, anyway. And so will all my hopes, dreams, everything." You know, that line of thinking.

I guess it's because I was raised in such a heavily Christian home, so that even though I haven't believed in a lot of it for a long time, my mind still sort of takes it for granted as true, all the same.

14. Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Comment #114066 by October Mermaid on January 21, 2008 at 9:57 am

Wow, BigJohn, that's horrible! I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

15. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #113949 by October Mermaid on January 21, 2008 at 4:26 am

So true, Ed-words.

You know, I'm really enjoying the God Delusion so far, and even someone like myself who has been an athiest for all intents and purposes for the last year or so has still had some trouble dealing with it.

I mean, even though I didn't believe there was a God or an afterlife, I still sort of half hoped that there was one if only for the sake of my religious friends and people I respect and look up to.

In a way, it almost seems too terrible to bear for me to think that these people I care about will one day dissapear and just be "gone" after their brain dies. But Dawkins puts it very well when he says that we shouldn't act like the universe owes us some comfort, and I can't cling to a belief without evidence simply because it brings me some comfort.

Even so, I would be lying if I said I haven't been having a lot of trouble getting past this and working it out for myself. I do believe what Dr. Dawkins said in the Root of All Evil, about how athiesm doesn't mean living in despair, but... I do feel kind of sad about all of this.

Is it something every athiest has to go through, like a phase? Or do I just need to, in effect, "grow up" and get over it?

16. Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Comment #113946 by October Mermaid on January 21, 2008 at 4:13 am

Well, I sent the letter to my representative, but who knows what good it will do, considering I didn't edit it. I couldn't think of really any way in which I could do so, but then again, I'm currently half asleep.

I pretty much just decided that sending a non-editted letter like that is better than not sending anything at all.

And most of the Christians I know don't even seem to really care about the historical accuracy of this sort of thing. If you provide any evidence to the contrary, they basically respond with "Well, I don't know, but..." and then go on and basically continue saying the same thing they were saying to begin with.

It reminds me of a bizarre song by a Christian band called FFH which deserves some kind of award for its sheer banality. The chorus literally says, "Well I don't know that much about astronauts... but I know that Jesus cares an awful lot!"

I'm not kidding. I wish I were.

17. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #113492 by October Mermaid on January 19, 2008 at 6:47 pm

Just picked up the paperback last night and I've been enjoying it even more than I'd expected to!

I really wish I had been able to read this book back when I was having my "crisis of faith" with Christianity. It would've saved me a lot of time and anguish.

EDIT: Also, the paperback version is "right purdy."

18. State Board of Education

Comment #113491 by October Mermaid on January 19, 2008 at 6:42 pm

"I'm so glad that in my science class in college my teacher said (after explaining evolution):
'Well that's Evolution. Now to demonstrate Creationism.'
He then took out a bible and started hitting one of the kids in the front of class why yelling 'God did it!'"

I hope you don't mind, DanPinto, but I am totally going to share this fantastic anecdote at every opportunity!