1. Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

Comment #204547 by Myryama on July 5, 2008 at 7:17 am

According to Wikipedia, Saudi Arabia already exports 8.9m barrels of oil a day and they're investing to increase this to 12.5m by 2015. It looks like God might have worked in mysterious ways some time ago...

2. Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission

Comment #92160 by Myryama on November 30, 2007 at 1:49 am

I'm not sure how these things work in the US, but surely an organisation can't be both a tax-exempt charity and a lender of commercial loans to small businesses (or a credit-card issuer)?

3. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticizes popular atheist writers

Comment #78861 by Myryama on October 15, 2007 at 5:53 am

It helps to have a definitive statement of the beliefs of the religious. Presumably, the Archbishop would agree with the following:

"Christian life is lived in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and in common with other Christians in the church seeking to deepen that relationship and to follow the way that Jesus taught.

For Christians God is understood and known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

…Father… God is love, caring for creation and for every human being as God's beloved child.

…Son… God is as he has revealed himself to be in the historical person of Jesus Christ. Jesus' life, death and resurrection holds the key to knowing and loving God, and to making sense of life, before and after death.

…and Holy Spirit… God is alive, loving and active today, inspiring faith, justice and truth, sustaining the life of the world, giving spiritual gifts to the church and bearing his spiritual fruit in the world - changed lives and a transformed society."

That's from the C of E website (front page).

4. Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin

Comment #74281 by Myryama on September 28, 2007 at 3:23 am

Is it a coincidence that Ben Stein's initials are shorthand for something else? Maybe God is having a little joke at his expense...

5. Fears Grow Over 'Mega Mosque'

Comment #56725 by Myryama on July 17, 2007 at 4:04 am

If you follow the link to the petition on the No.10 website, you find this message:

"The e–petition asking the Prime Minister to 'Abolish plans to build a £100 million mega Mosque' is still ongoing. This is a response from the Government in advance of the closing date.

Under planning legislation, local planning authorities are responsible for the day to day control of development in their area. In doing so they are required to take into account all material considerations including the views of interested persons and particularly local communities.

With respect to the proposal associated with a site near the Olympic development in Newham, we understand from Newham Council that there is no current planning permission or application for a mosque and Newham Council do not expect a planning application in the near future.

The Government believes that where controversial issues such as this arise, all involved should ensure that discussions are conducted in a manner that respects the views of all sections of our communities and in a way that does not raise tensions in local areas."

They may still be planning it, of course, and they may yet submit a planning application, but there should be plenty of time to object.

6. Iran arrests 300 'insufficiently veiled' women

Comment #35447 by Myryama on April 27, 2007 at 7:26 am

Luthien's avatar crops up as a t-shirt here: http://www.jesusandmo.net/

7. Creationism debate continues to evolve

Comment #29682 by Myryama on April 4, 2007 at 4:17 am

I'm waiting for geocentricity to be taught in Physics lessons. Maybe the religious extremists should simply admit that their ability to understand the real world by reading an ancient text is, as Galileo demonstrated, limited.

8. Dawkins says religion is 'like sucking a dummy'

Comment #28380 by Myryama on March 29, 2007 at 3:05 am

Are those voting figures correct? Looks like there were a couple of hundred extra votes the second time round...

9. Lonely Atheists of the Global Village

Comment #26399 by Myryama on March 19, 2007 at 5:47 am

I didn't read the whole text - it is most depressing.

My question for Christians is always "How do you decide which parts of the bible to accept as morally correct?". The answer, of course, is that they use their own judgement and they ALL do this, irrespective of what they say, because none of them stone their cheeky children or prevent their wives from wearing gold/expensive clothes or kill people who work on Sundays or hold slaves or....

The truth is that nobody could follow the instructions of the Bible, even the New Testament, without ending up in prison. It just doesn't happen.

10. When They Came for the Homosexuals...

Comment #25802 by Myryama on March 15, 2007 at 7:43 am

The comparison to Nazi Germany is telling. There are some parts of history that we really don't want to repeat.

11. Conservapedia v Wikipedia

Comment #24914 by Myryama on March 9, 2007 at 8:35 am

I've never been to Delaware, so I can't really comment on the accuracy of this post, but it is certainly one of the briefest on Conservapedia:

http://www.conservapedia.com/Delaware

12. Public Acceptance of Evolution

Comment #24887 by Myryama on March 9, 2007 at 3:52 am

Maybe we could encourage disillusioned scientists in the US to come and work in the UK. We always need teachers, researchers and smart rational people. How about it?

13. Long live satire

Comment #24508 by Myryama on March 7, 2007 at 1:22 am

For an enlightened view of Christianity and Islam, you could do worse than visit www.jesusandmo.net.

14. Was there ever dog that praised his fleas?

Comment #24358 by Myryama on March 6, 2007 at 6:46 am

The question of Hitler's religious belief is not particularly important (although his anti-semitism sprung, at least in part, from a long history of European anti-semite teaching) and prolonged discussions of his faith rather miss the point.

The important aspect of Hitler, as Prof. Dawkins pointed out in TGD, is the dogmatic approach he and his followers adopted. They did not commit their crimes because of, or in spite of, a belief in a particular God; they committed their crimes because their world-view was irrational and founded on false principles. In this Hitler had good company; Stalin, Pol Pot, Mugabe and any number of dictators throughout history who have built cults of personality despite the abundant evidence of their repeated failures.

It is not lack of God that led Hitler to persecute Jews (although the evidence from Hitler's early speeches rather suggests that he considered himself, at least in the early to mid-twenties, a Catholic) - it was his lack of a rational, evidence-based evaluation of the world around him. Mugabe has the same problem.

Religion explicitly trains people to believe without rigourous proof or evidence and rewards those able to hold the most extreme views (Jesus rose from the dead! Really? Prove it). Moderate Religion (almost an oxymoron, I think) opens the door to the extremists and hands them the scriptures they need to justify whatever actions they wish to pursue.

15. Atheists come in last

Comment #23035 by Myryama on February 26, 2007 at 12:48 am

Does the New Testament replace the Old? That's what many Christians would like to believe, but it really all depends on how you read it. Consider Matthew 5:18-19; not completely unambiguous, to be sure, but I think it is reasonably clear that the OT still applies:

5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

That seems to me to suggest that the rules of the OT are still in force. Of course, the NT writers go on to condone slavery, giving instructions on how slaves should behave. I'm afraid that this rather dilutes the moral standing of the NT, putting it on the same level of moral achievement as the OT (which is on the low side of lowish).

The point is that even if the NT replaced the OT (which, according to Matthew, it doesn't), it is still a massively flawed and immoral set of teachings by today's standards. This shouldn't surprise anyone - we've learnt rather a lot about morals, human rights and the alleviation of suffering in the last 2 millenia.

16. Battle for Europe's secular values

Comment #22625 by Myryama on February 20, 2007 at 3:10 am

Bizarro wrote:

"Fine. I am an intelligent entity, and I say that Jews are worthless and should be killed so we can have their resources. Prove me wrong."

This is a great example of the problem with religion. Even assuming that Bizarro was trolling, the fact that a person's religion can be used to label them so that they can be singled out for attack is, in my opinion, an indicator of the divisive and unpleasant nature of our religious "communities".

Oh, and for what it is worth, the implicit assumption that "atheist faith" is somehow equivalent to religious faith is repugnant; I don't blindly follow my atheism, or force others to do the same, and I would certainly need to hear some pretty good arguments before I took moral guidance from a poorly edited, inconsistent and unpleasant magic book.

17. Do stop behaving as if you are God, Professor Dawkins

Comment #20899 by Myryama on February 7, 2007 at 1:47 am

Prof. McGrath - please post your evidence for the existence of God.

18. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #20896 by Myryama on February 7, 2007 at 1:02 am

26 - Stpetes

"Poorly informed atheists" we may be, but I'd rather be uninformed and able to question of my surroundings than suffer the false certainty of religious belief (where, by definition, everything I don't understand is "God's work").

19. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #20894 by Myryama on February 7, 2007 at 12:57 am

I think the interviewer in this article is almost as much to blame as the interviewee. McGrath is allowed to get away with things like:

"But it's obvious that people think a lot about their faith and this is grounds for evidence - but it's not the same as scientific proof."

This should have been challenged with, at the very least, "Can we see your evidence?"

McGrath is an experienced, educated man but he refuses to apply his scientific knowledge and methods to his religious beliefs. It seems to me that he has reached a point in his understanding of the world where he simply can't move forward any further scientifically and so he has assumed that God is responsible for the things he doesn't understand.

There will be no "McGrath's laws of Biochemistry"; he's limited himself to a minor footnote in the annals of an obsolete and obscure department (Historical Theology!). How sad.

20. [Warning: Graphic] Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name

Comment #19998 by Myryama on January 31, 2007 at 3:25 am

I think CNN have posted a remarkably restrained article, considering the subject matter. The language seems appropriately descriptive to me - the problem is that the subject matter is astonishingly unpleasant and I don't think anyone outside the small clique performing these barbaric rituals would approve of them.

It really isn't a question of "heathen types", it is merely an example of people driven to commit evil acts by their religion. We have to express our views about this and oppose it whenever an opportunity arises.

21. [Warning: Graphic] Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name

Comment #19978 by Myryama on January 31, 2007 at 1:10 am

This is horrendous. It is the most horrible treatment of children I have ever seen. What sort of people condone this behaviour and what sort of parents are happy to inflict this sort of suffering on their children?

I was in a good mood this morning, but this article has really taken the edge off it; is this the peaceful, moderate Islam that we keep hearing about?

22. Send The God Delusion to your MP

Comment #19144 by Myryama on January 25, 2007 at 6:53 am

Sending one book to each MP, all arriving on the same day, would be very cool. If we deliberately allowed duplication, however, MPs could receive an almost constant stream of books and they'd be forced to hand them to relatives, give them to their secretaries and leave them on the tube for everyone else to read.

The cumulative effect of many small deliveries might be more dramatic than a single large delivery...