1. Science is thrilling - except in our schools

Comment #203599 by bujin on July 3, 2008 at 8:12 am

Good article!

I think we need some sort of petition to change the way science is taught in school. But it probably wouldn't do any good anyway!

I work in the education sector (albeit at further education (16 ) level, and on the admin support side), and I can understand the frustrations of the teachers. There is definitely more of a goal to get good inspection grades than to actually engage the students with interesting teaching methods and subjects.

2. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #190947 by bujin on June 10, 2008 at 1:28 am

Wow! I've read some utter crap from theists over the past couple of years, but that article really takes the piss!

3. Mail-boat record 'proves Darwin stole his original ideas from a Welsh scientist'

Comment #185114 by bujin on May 27, 2008 at 2:18 am

Guys, don't taken anything icWales says as serious. They have the worst journalists in the world!

4. God and Science Collide in Nation's Capital

Comment #181726 by bujin on May 18, 2008 at 4:37 am

"From what I know about physics, it's not impossible to imagine a world in which God acts but we never can prove it."

Ah, of course.

And all you people who have stopped believing in fairies and unicorns should have a rethink, because from what I know about physics, it's just possible that observing fairies and unicorns actually makes them invisible, so they can never be observed directly. But they DO exist.

5. Mecca should become core to measure time zones: scholars

Comment #165644 by bujin on April 22, 2008 at 1:09 am

The Middle East was the centre of scientific and technological development a thousand years ago. If they hadn't ditched all that for irrational superstition, they would probably have their Mecca as the core time zone.

They had their chance. Now they can f*** off.

6. Interviews with Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer

Comment #164039 by bujin on April 19, 2008 at 12:59 pm

An alleged connection between Hitler and Nazism? Surely not... ;o)

7. Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss

Comment #161171 by bujin on April 15, 2008 at 2:01 am

Looks like I won't be doing much development on the completion and attainment reports again today! I'm on part 3 at the moment, and it's rather interesting!

8. The simple falsehood at the heart of Expelled

Comment #158243 by bujin on April 10, 2008 at 8:51 am

I really don't think that the Expelled guys (or any other IDiot for that matter) use the "Darwinism leads to Hitler" argument because they think that is an accurate description of evolution.

They do it simply to scare people (who know nothing of evolution) away from the theory and, hopefully (for them, anyway) back into the arms of creationism.

Articles like this could be posted every day for a year and at the end of that year, there would still be creationists making exactly the same claim.

9. Discussion between Richard Dawkins and Paula Kirby

Comment #157622 by bujin on April 9, 2008 at 10:49 am

Comment #157565
"The answer that Prof. Dawkins gave about 'why?' questions was excellent."

It was excellent, but when the statement "perhaps that's why some people to turn to religion to answer that question", I was a little surprised and disappointed that Prof. Dawkins didn't respond with "well what exactly is it that qualifies them to provide the answer?"

Great stuff though. I'm up to part 11 now, but YT has stopped working so I'll have to wait to see the concluding parts.

Comment #157596
"Think of it as 'linguistic shorthand.' The way Richard uses the word 'thankful' is a common way of saying 'happy to be so fortunate.' To have a feeling of gratitude or thankfulness doesn't require that there be a particular someone to be thankful to."

Alternatively, he could be thankful to his parents, and their parents and every other ancestor back to the beginning of life on earth who procreated at just the right moment in time to put him on the earth right now. ;o)

10. Anti-Quran Film Fitna Pulled From Web Due to 'Threats'

Comment #152282 by bujin on March 30, 2008 at 3:44 pm

I watched it this morning - looks like I caught it just in time! It's a highly disturbing film, and the threats against the LiveLeak staff are proving the whole point of the film.

11. New Atheists Are Not Great

Comment #145451 by bujin on March 17, 2008 at 3:33 pm

I read "Dinesh D'Souza" and stopped straight away. The man's a muppet and it isn't worth wasting my time reading anything he has to say.

12. In Britain, creationist theory is evolving

Comment #145008 by bujin on March 17, 2008 at 7:01 am

I really wish I knew more about biology and evolution, because I would love to go along to one of Ken Ham's talks and ask some awkward questions.

I agree with Jayday - some people here have said they are confident that creationism will not get a foothold in Europe. Don't get complacent, because that's when it will sneak in without you noticing.

I work in a college. I think I'll have a word with the Biology lecturers to see if they've ever been approached by creationists and, if so, to find out what their responses were.

13. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #138168 by bujin on March 4, 2008 at 2:55 am

It may be a bit pessimistic, but I agree with Stephen Jay Gould. When you think of all the things that had to happen for humans to develop the intelligence we have, and look at the length of time that prior species have existed without the need for this level of intelligence, I would guess that developing intelligence is pretty rare, and I don't think that we will be finding evidence of it any time soon.

14. Fleabytes

Comment #130754 by bujin on February 21, 2008 at 8:31 am

clearthinker -

Why do you need to respond *here*. Can't you write your response and upload it somewhere else? It's not as if every time Prof. Dawkins wants to write an article about something someone else wrote he *must* do it on the website that hosts the original article. Why do you need to?

If you have a valid rebuttal to Paula's writings then write them!

15. Fleabytes

Comment #130679 by bujin on February 21, 2008 at 6:36 am

Just finished reading - it took me three days to get through it all!!!

Superb stuff, Paula!

If there's one thing I disagree on, slightly, it would be the section on paranoia. I think it's a lot more simple than "wanting to be persecuted". I think it's plain, simple scaremongering tactics. They tell their readers (who, lets face it, will mostly be religious types) that us nasty atheists are against them, even to the point that we want to eradicate them or lock them up. That then gives their readers an image in their mind that, firstly, they don't want to become a nasty atheist themselves, and secondly, it gives them a reason to "take up arms" against us nasty atheists and fight back.

The other overriding image I got in my mind, particularly from your review of Robertson's stuff (as this was dealt with in great detail) was of a man who doubts his own beliefs in Christianity, but doesn't WANT to lose his faith because he thinks that lack of faith is too distressing. He knows deep down that his beliefs are lacking credibility, but is re-writing old cliches in an attempt to convince *himself*, rather than anyone else.

16. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125738 by bujin on February 12, 2008 at 12:53 am

A few others have already mentioned Neil deGrasse Tyson. The guy has such an infectious enthusiasm for science that I think he would be perfect for the job. I mentioned on the Bad Astronomy blog comments a while back that if I had heard of Tyson while still in university, I would probably be a professional astronomer today!

17. Sharia fiasco

Comment #124858 by bujin on February 10, 2008 at 11:20 am

We need Pat to have his own regular 5 minute slot on national TV! Maybe just after the news or something.

18. Richard Dawkins on The Big Debate

Comment #117961 by bujin on January 30, 2008 at 4:34 am

I've only just started watching this video, so won't join in any discussions of it yet.

One thing that I can't get out of my head is the "Bishop of Bath and Wells".

I cannot help myself from thinking of the "Baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells" from Blackadder II!

19. Darwin Day (Feb 12th) E-Cards

Comment #114329 by bujin on January 22, 2008 at 12:54 am

I like the idea of Darwin Day cards. And I can think of a couple of people to send them to as well.

Kent Hovind. Michael Behe. Ken Ham*.

I think they'd all appreciate the sentiment.



* the AiG chap, not the astronaut... ;o)

20. Richard Dawkins on The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke

Comment #109862 by bujin on January 10, 2008 at 12:56 am

Aye, not bad. I remember seeing a clip of Hitchens talking about Falwell, but I missed that particular quote - it made me larf! :oD

21. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109385 by bujin on January 9, 2008 at 12:54 am

"Oh but he did! A theist colleague of mine won a few hundred bucks on the lottery right before christmas. She'd been a bit short and had prayed to God to help her buy presents for her kids.

She told me triumphantly, (knowing I am atheist), if that wasn't a proof of God she didn't know what was.

I'm sorry you didn't get to hear about it; it should have been in all the papers it being the absolute proof of a divine power and all...."
--- Ian Bamlett, Comment #17

Awww, heck! I missed that bit of news. Now I believe.

It was nice of God to answer a prayer to bring a bit of cash to someone. Still, I think it was a bit off to ignore all the prayers of all those people who were in mortal danger and ended up dead.

He really needs to pick and choose which prayers he answers a bit better, I think.

22. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109175 by bujin on January 8, 2008 at 1:56 pm

It was a bad year for God indeed.

You'd think he's taken so much crap over the past year or two that he'd do something to prove his existence...

23. Interview with Richard Dawkins: On Christmas

Comment #100878 by bujin on December 19, 2007 at 1:58 pm

Richard Morgan wrote:

"If I have failed to make my point, let us take things a step further: if you can sing them, can you say them?
If you can't say them, what transformation takes place when you put the words to music to sing them?"

I, as an atheist, can say "God is my saviour and I worship him".

It means absolutely nothing to me as I don't believe it.

On the other hand, I can say "God is a complete arsehole and was probably raped by another homosexual deity (which is why he has such a big problem with homophobia). He's a complete f*cking w*nker and I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire" (Ok, if he was omnipotent, he could put himself out...)

Again, the words mean absolutely nothing to me, since I do not believe in gods.

So yes, could sing carols, and I could say particular phrases. But they are still completely meaningless.

I don't, because I don't personally enjoy singing carols. But I can understand Dawkins' point.

24. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #99044 by bujin on December 15, 2007 at 10:31 am

Great stuff. I fully enjoyed watching that. It's nice to see the four of them discuss the ideas and seeing what they agree on and what they disagree on.

25. Stephen Hawking Says Universe Created from Nothing

Comment #28137 by bujin on March 28, 2007 at 5:50 am

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Einstein also make his "greatest blunder"?

Mistakes happen. Admitting them deserves respect.