1. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #133964 by Catsyk on February 27, 2008 at 4:52 am

"Honour thy father and mother", Reverend, by letting them win at scrabble, lest they take you outside the village and stone you.

2. Physicist Neil Turok: Big Bang Wasn't the Beginning

Comment #133325 by Catsyk on February 26, 2008 at 4:21 am

I read this article and thread while drinking a potent ale called The Beast; the combination of which made my brane hurt.

3. The coming religious peace

Comment #131939 by Catsyk on February 23, 2008 at 4:27 pm

I used to work in Saudi Arabia, and, standing outside one starry night, one of my Saudi technicians tried to convince me that shooting stars were angels falling from God's grace.

My wife is Indian, and a Jain by birth. Jainism being quite an austere religion, her family routinely practices a form of Hinduism instead, and from what I can see of their puja, they know virtually nothing about the philosophy of either religion. They pour milk over a stone column representing Shiva's cock and mutter prayers in Sanskrit, the meaning of which they have no idea. When I told my wife that her Shiva lingam was, in fact, a phallus and an ancient fertility symbol, she was outraged.

My wife has a little God cupboard in the kitchen, and in it she has a shrine with bit's and pieces from all the major religions. She doesn't care about the contradictions; she just prays to all the gods in her simple way. Once, I took the children to Cyprus, while she went on a circle trip to India, rejoining us later. In the apartment we stayed in, she found a plastic bust of Darth Maul from Star Wars, which had come from a packet of cereal I'd bought for the children. After we returned home, some weeks later I glanced in her cupboard as I passed only to see Darth Maul taking pride of place in her shrine. She thought he was an ancient Greek god.

There is a very long way to go before truth and reason wins out over superstition and religion in the 3rd World.

4. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #128844 by Catsyk on February 18, 2008 at 4:47 am

Not everyone who visits this site has an IQ the size of a planet. I like comments from people like wooter, because they make me feel considerably less stupid.

5. Why Darwin matters

Comment #126738 by Catsyk on February 14, 2008 at 4:57 am

I've been following this forum with interest for some months now, having recognised that the time has come for atheists to stand up and be counted.

I became an atheist at a young age when my prayers went unanswered during a very unhappy childhood. I never got the pony I asked for.

But one of the things that's always puzzled me is why people of far higher intellect than I possess, manage to have faith in an entity for which there is no discernible evidence. People like Rowan Williams are essentially good and highly intelligent, but why do they persist in such nonsense?

I'm sure this subject has been done to death elsewhere in the forum, but I can't find a location for it. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

6. Why Darwin matters

Comment #126735 by Catsyk on February 14, 2008 at 4:36 am

To The Reverend Shayne Dark

I used to be Reverend Goat in a chat room, but I got too many Private Messages from Satanists. do you have the same problem?