1. The Great Mutator

Comment #49769 by Mikado on June 13, 2007 at 10:38 am

29. Comment #49731 by tieInterceptor on June 13, 2007 at 7:18 am

">waxwings:
>He's like a turd that won't flush. Amazing.

I made some of those , if you leave them there for the night by the morning they get soggy and go through."

You just have the wrong kind of toilet, This will flush even ID to it's rightful place:

http://www.josplumbing.com/

2. Tome truths

Comment #49426 by Mikado on June 12, 2007 at 12:09 am

It was quite amusing opening this weeks Time magazine and find that the Archbishop of Canterbury's idea of being progressive was having a modern "designer cross" around his neck.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1630227,00.html?cnn=yes

3. We of little faith

Comment #49022 by Mikado on June 10, 2007 at 3:15 am

What never fails to amuse me is the way so many "atheists" still needs to have some sort of religion to cling to.

4. Can we really learn to love people who aren't like us?

Comment #48995 by Mikado on June 10, 2007 at 12:33 am

68. Comment #48939 by darwin2 on June 9, 2007 at 4:43 pm

If the Wright brothers had designed the Space Shuttle from scratch I would indeed have been impressed and quite possible would have understood why some people would consider them to be deities. However if you start with the Wright fliers (start with the gliders) and look at all the aircrafts that have been built before the Space Shuttle you will see that the Space Shuttle is an excellent example of Darwin's theory of evolution: "Decent with modifications"

5. Hamas Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony

Comment #47761 by Mikado on June 5, 2007 at 12:59 pm

70. Comment #47728 by Rtambree
..................
The denying of equal rights for Arab citizens of Israel?..................

Actually that is how I am treated for being an atheist in Norway.

6. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45351 by Mikado on May 27, 2007 at 10:15 am

Here is Al Gore in action and also signing his latest book:
http://www.zombietime.com/gore_in_marin/

7. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45234 by Mikado on May 27, 2007 at 12:26 am

There is one thing the Al Gore supporters need to consider. Al Gore is a NCD - Natural Climate Denier. His creationist's view is that God have created the Earth and man has messed it up and we must repent and change our ways to save it. This is not surprising considering Al Gore studied theology at Vanderbilt University before he switched to its Law school. You who see his film will find precious little mention of natural climate change, it is all the sins of man that are destroying god's creation. Here in Norway it is also the Christian left and right that are his greatest admirers.

Personally I am in favour of reducing our "carbon footprint" to the best of our ability as it clearly has great advantages for a lot of reasons, including climate in some degree. It will however not stop the climate from changing. Climate change is as natural on Earth as evolution; it has indeed probably been one of the main forces driving evolution.

Al Gore's "sin" is that he denies that climate can change naturally and that we can somehow stop it. What if he is wrong? We will have squandered our resources on a wild goose chase that do no good and will only increase the sufferings where change will be negative.

During the last warm period the increased wealth in Europe was used to build cathedrals. Beautiful as they might be they were of no use to sufferers in other parts of the world. What we need to do is to use our resources to help those most needy, like building dikes in Bangladesh and securing clean drinking water where that is lacking. To save as much as possible of the earth's natural environment we need to make sure our agriculture is as efficient as possible and that we only grow what we can not obtain otherwise. Improving living conditions will also reduce the population growth rate.

Al Gore is the "pied piper" of the New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Chartage Tennesee; he is in no way a man of reason.

8. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45090 by Mikado on May 26, 2007 at 10:42 am

Is "Teflon" creationist a useful "Tipper-Sticker" for Al Gore.

9. Importing a slave class

Comment #45084 by Mikado on May 26, 2007 at 9:56 am

Immigrants is the greatest gift any country can have. The argument that immigrants steal jobs has no economic foundation, they have all the basic needs and generate additional demands and more jobs for the rest on the population. The anti immigrant arguments Ann Coulter is promoting is usually coming from the other side. In Norway it was the Labour party that made immigration illegal in 1976 (or close) after being pressured by the unions. (We do allow quotas of refugees and the EU rules) Have Ann become a socialist?

10. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #41769 by Mikado on May 16, 2007 at 11:22 pm

Nullius in Verba

11. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #41376 by Mikado on May 16, 2007 at 3:29 am

25. Comment #41372 by Aussie on May 16, 2007 at 2:59 am

Have you noticed the extremely strong correlation between fundamentalist Christianity, anti-Darwinism and global warming denialism.

Coincidence?

12. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #40771 by Mikado on May 14, 2007 at 11:44 pm

11. Comment #40755 by Mr. Grape

And the proof that we have caused this is?

If we have caused this we must also have caused the medieval warming and the warming of the bronze age 1500 years before that.

Your links is already in my favourites. IPCC is a political body. You will find their Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis" here:
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

This is also a useful link:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ponderthemaunder/index.html

As you have studied climate change, you will undoubtedly know why Kristen Byrnes have called her site "Ponder the Maunder"

Even the great Lord Kelvin tried to debunk the Sun-climate connection, he failed.

13. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #40744 by Mikado on May 14, 2007 at 9:58 pm

And the proof of AGW is? When you ask for proof all you get is "the Earth has warmed". This is just like Christians claiming their religion is true because all the life on Earth have been created.

As for "Follow the money trail, you will find the truth.". Are you nor aware of the wast amounts of money there is to be made out of carbon-trading. I think you need to get yourself another investment adviser.

14. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #40436 by Mikado on May 14, 2007 at 9:43 am

Ever since the Greek philosopher Meton studied sunspots 2400 years ago and compared them to his notes on the weather, science has known the connection between the two. Why we all suddenly should follow a deranged baptist from Tennessee and start believing in his absurd religion escapes me. The sun climate connection is in the IPCC "The Physical Science Basis". The reason it was downplayed in the Summary was political. We need to use our resources to help those who will be negatively affected. The last time Europe had a warm period we built cathedrals, let's not be equally stupid this time.

15. The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Comment #40252 by Mikado on May 14, 2007 at 3:10 am

37. Comment #40238 by alovrin
The Creationists managed to push this one under our noses:
http://richarddawkins.net/article,1036,The-Encyclopedia-of-Life,eolorg#40249

16. The Encyclopedia of Life

Comment #40249 by Mikado on May 14, 2007 at 3:04 am

The Creationists are getting more devious, even they are evolving.
I think Darwin will do for me for the time being.

17. The meaning of freedom

Comment #40122 by Mikado on May 13, 2007 at 7:57 am

Maybe the right way to deal with this is to approve it because it makes the Muslim women look like early Christian nuns.

18. Unintelligent Design

Comment #40072 by Mikado on May 13, 2007 at 2:20 am

49. Comment #40061 by Russell Blackford

........Again, I do suspect that there's probably a grain of truth someone in Atran's thinking - if only that religion had some kind of usefulness at some time in the past.

19. Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great

Comment #40060 by Mikado on May 12, 2007 at 11:32 pm

Regarding Church tax. In Norway all taxpayers pay Church Tax. There is absolutely no way to opt out.

20. Unintelligent Design

Comment #39973 by Mikado on May 12, 2007 at 12:50 pm

27. Comment #39966 by hasty toweling

............Our morals will probably never follow from pure logic, and I don't believe that mathematics is the best place to look when deciding how to behave, but basing our beliefs on patent nonsense seems wrong too.

21. The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Comment #39970 by Mikado on May 12, 2007 at 12:32 pm

The application and content of First Amendment principles are not determined by public opinion polls or by a majority vote. Whether the proponents of Act 590 constitute the majority or the minority is quite irrelevant under a constitutional system of government. No group, no matter how large or small, may use the organs of government, of which the public schools are the most conspicuous and influential, to foist its religious beliefs on others.

22. Unintelligent Design

Comment #39961 by Mikado on May 12, 2007 at 11:50 am

It seems this is just another person trying to cash in on non existing problems. You do not need to replace religion, just get rid of it.

23. Supporters of abortion have no future in Church, Pope tells faithful

Comment #39615 by Mikado on May 11, 2007 at 9:51 am

20. Comment #39606 by ghostbuster
Sorry it is not the mindless Christians that are "denying life-saving condoms/healthcare drugs". We in the west are doing that by denying Africans access to our markets. Unless Africans have a significant increase in their living standard "life-saving condoms/healthcare drugs" will have a low priority for the average African. The churches in Europe and the US seems to have very little impact on their congregations choices.

As for the main topic: "Supporters of abortion have no future in Church, Pope tells faithful". This is of course a very good start, and would I believe eliminate a good number of church members. Anyone know of any other groups we should suggest the pope excommunicate? People who jogs on Sundays? Dog owners?

24. Cataloguing every species on earth

Comment #39393 by Mikado on May 10, 2007 at 1:34 pm

I am sorry but I am unable to support a Creationist project. Darwin will do fine for me.

25. God Exists. A Formula Proves it.

Comment #38240 by Mikado on May 7, 2007 at 9:47 am

85. Comment #37983 by mjwemdee

1 Kings 7:
7:23 And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.

Pi=3 by implication.

26. The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it

Comment #38227 by Mikado on May 7, 2007 at 9:16 am

In recent years, research has thrown up some remarkable benefits - the faithful live longer, recover from surgery quicker, are happier, less prone to mental illness and so the list goes on.

27. God Exists. A Formula Proves it.

Comment #37924 by Mikado on May 6, 2007 at 9:49 am

The tummy was the giveaway. If god had existed the professor would have had a perfect physique.

Next question please.

28. My response to the GOP evolution question

Comment #37852 by Mikado on May 6, 2007 at 2:47 am

If anyone here ever wondered why David Crockett died at the Alamo, you should have a look here:

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/slenchek/slslavery.html

29. When Seeing Is Disbelieving

Comment #36771 by Mikado on May 2, 2007 at 8:56 am

Comment #36740 by devolved

............
3 I choose not to exclude the possibility of an intelligent designer.
....................

30. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35925 by Mikado on April 29, 2007 at 10:45 am

I thin you have this thing about the number of species all wrong. Obviously god must have seen the need for a flood coming all the time so most of the animals and bacteria was created after the flood. I am certain Noa did not notice. From what I have heard god managed to slip in polar bears after the medieval warm period.

31. Pundit Christopher Hitchens picks a fight in book, 'God is Not Great'

Comment #35828 by Mikado on April 29, 2007 at 2:49 am

Hitchens' quarrel with God is too complex to invite summary...........

How is it possible to have a quarrel with something that do not exist.

"Yes Sherlock Holmes and I have had our differences in the past, but at the moment we are the best of friends"

32. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35827 by Mikado on April 29, 2007 at 2:41 am

"Ok father we need to recruit some new people to work for us on earth, we seem to be loosing believers. As I am definitely not going again so I am planning to recruit this English biology professor to work for us. He is very smart and have experience in the American market, you know they are suckers for English accents".

"No, no Jesus do you think I can just create money, he is far to expensive. I have found a hard working Dutch contractor that has showed he can take on big jobs. He is willing to work for almost nothing"

33. Two idiots get a forum

Comment #35810 by Mikado on April 28, 2007 at 11:40 pm

God created the banana? How stupid can you be? God was not even able to create Jesus, it had to have girl do that. ("Come over here little girl, I need you to do something for me")

34. We aim to misbehave

Comment #35802 by Mikado on April 28, 2007 at 11:08 pm

51. Comment #35792 by Veronique

You probably know that Henry IV of France is supposed to have said: Paris vaut bien une messe ("Paris is well worth a Mass") when he as a protestant converted to Catholicism in order to become king. A lot of people would probably been willing to pay lip-sevice to a religion to get such a job. I belive that our king would not try to influence any decicions regarding the church. The royal family is probably just as religious as most other norwegians.

It is only the king and 50% of the cabinet that is required to be church members so the parliament could in theory be 100% atheist. I personally think that the present center left majorety will manage to make a big mess of this issue as they do with most other things. The real issue is not that they are very pro-church but more that they want to keep control over the promotion of the clergy. They fear that the church will become more concervative if they are allowed to elect their own bishops. Experience from Sweden where the church and state have been totally separated points in the other direction. When you are dependent on the goodwill of your parishoners for your salery it is better not to be to much out of step.

Getting rid of our national flag with its christian cross is I belive much more dificult. Your cross is at least secular.

Thanks for your interest.

Cheers

35. We aim to misbehave

Comment #35636 by Mikado on April 28, 2007 at 3:39 am

Veronique
From our constitution:

§ 2.
Alle Indvaanere af Riget have fri Religionsøvelse.
Den evangelisk-lutherske Religion forbliver Statens offentlige Religion. De Indvaanere, der bekjende sig til den, ere forpligtede til at opdrage deres Børn i samme.

The first sentence say that all inhabitants in the realm have free religious worship.

The second sentence says that the evangelical-lutheran church is the official religion of the state. The third sentence say that all members of the state religion are obliged to raise their children as the same.

§ 4.
Kongen skal stedse bekjende sig til den evangelisk-lutherske Religion, haandhæve og beskytte denne.

This one says that the king has to belong to the evangelical-lutheran religion, practice it and protect it.

§ 12.
Kongen vælger selv et Raad af stemmeberettigede norske Borgere. Dette Raad skal bestaa af en Statsminister og i det mindste syv andre Medlemmer.

Af Statsraadets Medlemmer skulle over det halve Antal bekjende sig til Statens offentlige Religion.

Kongen fordeler Forretningerne iblandt Statsraadets Medlemmer saaledes, som han det for tjenligt eragter. Til at tage Sæde i Statsraadet kan Kongen ved overordentlige Leiligheder, foruden Statsraadets sædvanlige Medlemmer, tilkalde andre norske Borgere, kun ingen Medlemmer af Storthinget.

Ægtefæller, Forældre og Børn eller to Søskende maa ei paa samme Tid have Sæde i Statsraadet.

The second paragraph says that of the king's cabinet more than half the members have to be members of the official state religion. (The rest of this one can be an exercise in Norwegian. It is not a very modern Norwegian as our constitution is from 1814. )

At the moment we are debating the future of the state church. Of our present government, a coalition of the Labour party, the Radical Left party and the Farmers party, only the Radical Left party want to abolish the institution of a state church. They have a principal view in spite of having several state church priests as prominent members. The farmer's party is staunchly conservative and do not want any changes that do not involve higher subsidies or lower taxes for farmers. The labour party used to be supporters of an end to the state church institution. They have changed their mind and now want to keep it in order to control it and make it more progressive and modern. They want to remove the part where the state have the evangelical-lutheran religion as confessional religion and replace it with a humanist confessional. The 50% requirement for a cabinet is supposed to go.

Most people in Norway are not very religious. In Oslo, a town of about 500,000 people the state churches have no more than 5,000 regular users. The majority uses the church for ceremonies and not much else. You can have young people marrying in church with all the trimmings and when they have children they do not baptise them. If you are religious you are not a member of the state church.

Personally in spite of looking at the state church as an effective tool for dechristianizing Norway, I would want to get rid of it.

36. We aim to misbehave

Comment #35620 by Mikado on April 27, 2007 at 11:47 pm

You Americans do not know how lucky you are. Here in Norway I am forced to pay the salaries of the priest-devils. Atheists are not allowed to form a full government as 50% have to be a member of the state-church. We would have to rent state-church members from Manpower to serve in our government.
The state-church priests naturally feel it is their duty to meddle in politics and that it is the duty of the government to submit. I try not to be rude when discussing these questions but I sometimes find it very difficult.

37. Vote for the Time 100 - Are They Worthy?

Comment #34741 by Mikado on April 25, 2007 at 3:41 am

I shall certainly not vote for anyone in Time Magazines silliest feature of the year. Sorry RD.

38. Gay hate church to picket VT gun rampage funerals

Comment #33678 by Mikado on April 21, 2007 at 4:44 am

70. Comment #33675 by scottishgeologist

I do not like to say this, but from much of what is written on this Forum one could easily draw the conclusion that hating those with a different opinion than your own is a common human trait regardless of belief or not.

39. Doctors Opposing Circumcision: An Appeal for Misha

Comment #32433 by Mikado on April 17, 2007 at 3:55 am

Comment #32424 by Veronique

Whats done is done. However "(this discounts the religious imperative from the Jews who made it into a rite of passage)." - could sand have anything to with it?

I find Circumcision of children unacceptable for any reason.

40. Kadra attacked in public

Comment #32081 by Mikado on April 15, 2007 at 2:07 pm

Comment #32080 by justme
From what I have seen on the net, the newspapers seems very interested. The latest development is that Kadra seems to have identified some of her assailants from surveillance cameras in the area. As for TV news I can not say as I do not watch news on TV.
(My hair was beginning to look like yours, I like to have some control over it.)

41. Kadra attacked in public

Comment #32047 by Mikado on April 15, 2007 at 10:35 am

Any Norwegians around here?

42. Kadra attacked in public

Comment #32045 by Mikado on April 15, 2007 at 10:30 am

Comment #32034 by WalkingARazor

Wow, in one of the most secular countries in the world.....

43. Thanks for the Facts. Now Sell Them.

Comment #32005 by Mikado on April 15, 2007 at 7:36 am

I would think that most believers in the US and elsewhere would be more happy if their priest just said: "God did it and evolution is how he did it". My experience with most believers is that they have a problem with letting go of god but have no problem with dismissing most of the bible.

My problem with the modern left is that I find them far to conservative for my liking.

Keep up the good work RD.:)

44. U.N. Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts

Comment #30009 by Mikado on April 6, 2007 at 6:15 am

Wouldn't it be more productive to wait until the actual report is released and read that instead of press releases from people that clearly do not trust the alleged 'consensus'

45. Creationism debate continues to evolve

Comment #29828 by Mikado on April 5, 2007 at 3:52 am

20. Comment #29790 by Nails

I'm not a theist, so I guess my answer will not be the one you are looking for but hey, here goes. The reason we have so many starving children in the world is because we tend to over-populate (especially in developing countries) and when disaster strikes, it hits these people hard because they are already living on the edge of what their land can produce.
Of course, being told that using condoms will send you straight to hell isn't helping, is it Pope....

46. Biology teacher fired for referring to Bible

Comment #26728 by Mikado on March 21, 2007 at 11:29 am

Logicel Said:

Religion has not be able to maintain its stranglehold on humanity without not being extremely clever. Christians will use anything available to further their agenda, often incorporating elements from the other side(s), stealing them and then dressing them up with Christian cloaks of dense stupidity.

47. Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Comment #26006 by Mikado on March 16, 2007 at 4:18 am

Hey scottishgeologist,

Your quote:

"The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, said: "Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine.

"You can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar.""

OK, Here is my prayer story: When I went to primary school our class hold a lottery to get money for curtains in the classroom windows. One of the parent-donated prizes was a book that I very much fancied. I tried prayers and naturally I won the book.

Referring to a statement very much like the one above, I decided the result must have been chance and promptly became an atheist.

Conclusion: Prayers can have benefits.;)

48. Turkey: Creationism Documentary

Comment #25567 by Mikado on March 14, 2007 at 5:58 am

Thanks scottishgeologist for documenting what a bad job the alleged creator must have done.

49. US Congressman Holds No God-Belief

Comment #25412 by Mikado on March 13, 2007 at 1:58 am

I have a problem with the Unitarian - atheist bit if this is Unitarianism:

http://www.uua.org/aboutuu/

I would prefere it if Rep. Stark was just an atheist.

50. Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming

Comment #25409 by Mikado on March 13, 2007 at 1:26 am

Could those of you who are worried about the size of the human population please explain why both France and Time magazine was very happy to report recently that the birth rate in France was rising again. I live in a country that pay women to have more babies and at the same time are worried about the world population.

Please help me, I am to stupid to understand this on my own.