Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by Raiko


1. Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin?

Comment #203526 by Raiko on July 3, 2008 at 4:50 am

Tune in for the next issue:

Which is the better fuel? Kerosene or diesel?

2. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203493 by Raiko on July 3, 2008 at 3:00 am

Someone should tell them that the Scottish police isn't muslim. Oh, and please, dear Scottish police, don't you dare displaying a cute squirrel instead. In my personal religion of Achgukhnghlaheruff squirrles are considered unsweet and I'd feel highly offended!

3. Former state science director sues over intelligent design e-mail

Comment #203490 by Raiko on July 3, 2008 at 2:55 am

Good luck, Mrs. Comer! I'm glad she took this step and I hope the best for her!

4. Charles Darwin was not the father of atheism

Comment #201781 by Raiko on June 30, 2008 at 9:05 am

Less commas and more context, please.

5. The Science of Religion and the Religion of Science

Comment #200652 by Raiko on June 28, 2008 at 3:10 am

My four hour lonely ride home on Monday is SAVED! I for my part couldn't be happier that this is audio (and I am also German ;)).

6. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #200136 by Raiko on June 27, 2008 at 1:10 am

There is now a better way. Petabytes allow us to say: "Correlation is enough." We can stop looking for models. We can analyze the data without hypotheses about what it might show. We can throw the numbers into the biggest computing clusters the world has ever seen and let statistical algorithms find patterns where science cannot.


Wow. Has this person ever done any science? Where does he think the ideas come from where and how to start looking for useful data?

7. The Latest Wedge Document

Comment #200135 by Raiko on June 27, 2008 at 1:02 am

Talking about t-shirts - I need one that says

"~4 billion years of survival of the fittest - and I'm alive!"


On a more serious note - is there no way to very precisely clarify what controversies may be taught? Becauseif only scientifically valid controversies fell under a bill, it should be very well possible to throw out ID and creationism. ...nor can anyone really argue against the condition that such "controversies" should only include scientifically sound and valid points - and there'd still be an "open mind" in the classroom. In practice, there wouldn't be much to say, especially in the limited time of the classroom. I'm just wondering whether politically "yes, allow them to teach scientifically valid controversies" would be a better idea (or whether it would actually make it harder to keep creationism out of the classroom).

8. Science is not philosophy

Comment #198984 by Raiko on June 25, 2008 at 12:55 am

I am always amazed by people's claims on the way they're treated after proclaiming belief in ID. In many cases it's more or less an account of how they should be treated, rather than how they are treated.

If you're a journalist writing about science, or even worse an actual scientist, and declare ID scientifically valid, it's a strong indicator that you don't understand what science actually is and how it works. I don't see why such a person would expect this to not have any consequences.

9. Philadelphia Set to Honor Darwin and Evolution

Comment #198545 by Raiko on June 24, 2008 at 8:39 am

Mr. Ham, who also leads Answers in Genesis, a nonprofit group...


I think 'group' is too nice of a description for such a cult!


He rejected the possibility that Christians could believe in evolution. "If you take Genesis as literal history, then of course the two are exclusive," he said. "Christians who believe in evolution are being inconsistent."


To all Christians who do believe in accept evolution: Better inconsistent than irrational.

10. World Youth Day condom protest against Pope

Comment #198542 by Raiko on June 24, 2008 at 8:33 am

She said the Pope's teachings contributed to 67,000 women dying every year from backyard abortions and a suicide rate among gay youth that is seven times the average.


Does anyone have more information on this? Are suicide rates among Catholic homosexuals higher than in non-homophobic groups? Are there reliable statistics on backyard abortion? If what she's saying is even remotely the case, all the more "bravo" for the protest!

11. Rapture site sends unbelievers their last chance ... via email

Comment #198011 by Raiko on June 23, 2008 at 3:46 am

So what if your email application thinks the rapture message is just spam?


Then your email program probably has a point.

12. Behe's Empty Box

Comment #198008 by Raiko on June 23, 2008 at 3:42 am

I only have the audiobook of TGD, but I remember no such thing. If it was in the footnotes - I don't have those. I'll listen to the end part again, though, because if it is in there, I really want to hear it in context.

Also, nice contradiction:

see nobody has refuted Behe when he claimed Dawkins would prefer an 'explanation' of all the atoms in a statue moving together , to explain away a moving statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary

((emphasis added))

vs.

It was Dawkins , not Behe, who said the explanation of a moving statue of the Virgin Madonna was the atoms moving by themselves.

((emphasis added))

Could you please make up your mind?

---


EDIT: I listened to the last chapters on the TGD CDs and I could find nothing about a statue.

13. Christianity 'could die out within a century'

Comment #197378 by Raiko on June 21, 2008 at 11:31 pm

According to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, the huge drop off in attendance means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable.


They already are logically unviable, anyway - but the Catholic church probably owns by far enough money to keep up for a long, long, long while even if nobody goes to church.

14. Behe's Empty Box

Comment #197279 by Raiko on June 21, 2008 at 2:47 pm

I see nobody has refuted Behe when he claimed Dawkins would prefer an 'explanation' of all the atoms in a statue moving together , to explain away a moving statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary


What relevance does a hypothetically moving statue of anything have? Also, I would assume that no intelligent scientist, which includes Prof. Dawkins, would start off an examination by assuming the statue (or the atoms within) was moving by itself. I'm sorry Dr. Behe has yet again jumped ahead of himself by doing bad science.

15. What Happens When a School Board of Religious Zealots Will 'Lie for Jesus'?

Comment #197244 by Raiko on June 21, 2008 at 12:30 pm

I loved the part at the beginning when the Discovery Institute just wailed the same stuff the louder the more she told them it wasn't understandable to her. I sometimes get the feelings when fundamentalists try to argue their case, they don't actually understand the arguments themselves. How could they? It would require understanding science and they vehemently refuse to learn anything about it.


The sad part is that with all the repeating, they make things even easier for no-thinkers to repeat without understanding as well, and people then start believing that there's a true point to all the lies. Just recently I had some undereducated person in my car who pretended to me he was a lawyer and proceeded to call the struggle Barbara Forrester has in the USA an "expression of American democracy". Thanks to him and the Discovery Institute, I now know that American democracy apparently involves excluding the rest of the world, entails lying, talking about things you don't understand, refusing to learn about them and not explaining your points and arguments when asked to. In that case, I'd rather not have that sort of democracy.

16. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197240 by Raiko on June 21, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Oh no! Barbara Forrester is asking the rest of the world to take an interest in things that go wrong in America - the state that has more power over the rest of the world than most others - who's public will have an impact on other countries, especially when they're uneducated. She's making America's educational problems public to those who'd be affected by decisions made by America-bred, scientifically undereducated, Christian fundamentalists.

Oh no, how dare she?!!!

17. Rapture site sends unbelievers their last chance ... via email

Comment #194854 by Raiko on June 17, 2008 at 10:32 am

What a scam!

Day #35398: "Not enough Christians have logged into our website. The rapture is happening. REPENT NOW!"

Day #35399: "We apologize for the false notification. There was just a 24 hour power outage in Texas and many of our hard-paying members could not log in. But it's good you repented out of fear. God loves you."

18. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #194844 by Raiko on June 17, 2008 at 10:26 am

Thank you, Cartomancer - that was a great reply and I have made the same experiences and gotten the same impressions.

I was always a bit vexed by people assuming one of us must be the 'male' role in our relationship when I mentioned having a girlfriend, or even outrightly asking who's the 'guy'.

LBraschi - thanks for the literature!

19. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #194558 by Raiko on June 17, 2008 at 12:43 am

Reminds me of the youtube cartoon "Is Homosexuality a Choice?" (not perfect, but really nicely done).

Though looking at myself and my girlfriend (and many other lesbian people we know), we're quite far from behaving 'male'. We don't look very male either - so I wonder in what way (asides from depression rates) these differences are taking effect on a daily basis.

20. Behe's Empty Box

Comment #193815 by Raiko on June 16, 2008 at 4:34 am

I always thought "Behe's Empty Box" was only a book-review-ish essay. And while we're on that essay, is there a German translation of it (or can I write one?). Behe's book is unfortunately also published in German and sadly enough, people tend to buy his nonsense. I'd love to point them to the essay, but it doesn't seem many of them speak English. And Kenenth Miller's "Finding Darwins God" is unfortunately not translated, as far as I know.

I think I meant the review by Orr when confusing the website with a review.

21. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193813 by Raiko on June 16, 2008 at 4:30 am

Joining the Hitler Youth was a choice was it not? Not every kid in Germany was in the Hitler Youth.


Yes. About as much of a choice as leaving Scientology.

22. Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Comment #192436 by Raiko on June 13, 2008 at 4:02 am

This reminds me of some book about "Why men don't listen and women can't park a car" or something like that (I only know the German title) - just take a bunch of things that somehow seem to validate the standpoint of what people would like to hear and put it into written word.

23. Court Claim: Chimps Are People, Too

Comment #191984 by Raiko on June 12, 2008 at 8:40 am

But is Matthew really like you and me?


What a strange approach - obviously, being a chimp, any chimp deserves different rights from a dog, or a cat or a mouse for example, and I'm sure they'd be closer to human rights than those of most other animals. Needing a guardian might be one of those necesssary rights and should be considered.

However, while anthropologists cannot properly define why a chimp isn't a human, we all can tell the two apart, obviously. We don't need to know why we can tell them apart to realize that we can. However, that doesn't justify why the chimp shouldn't get any human-like rights as the difference is not so great.

The approach seems awkward to me on both sides. As always, I am likely to reject any 'extreme' position. And calling chimps people like you and me seems as extreme to me as trying to justify why they're just animals like any other. Obviously, neither is true and neither makes a really good argument (though I see why people might see that as her only option to save Matthew at the moment).

What's it with that black-and-white thinking? You can't have certain rights without being human? Why?

24. Debating creationism in Louisiana schools

Comment #191661 by Raiko on June 11, 2008 at 12:16 pm

I wonder how telling it is that my work computer shuts down firefox whenever I try to view this. O_o

25. Prayer to feed the hungry

Comment #190638 by Raiko on June 9, 2008 at 10:09 am

Rather than sponsoring such a senseless meeting, the UN should have sent the money to the hungry instead. Would have helped them a whole lot more.

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

Comment #190635 by Raiko on June 9, 2008 at 10:02 am

Was this written by Ray Comfort?


I am amazed how anyone can waste so many paragraphs on "I don't get it, I'm too stupid, so it must have been god." Wouldn't a decent friend with an "I'm with stupid" t-shirt do the trick? It's so much less effort.

27. Hints of 'time before Big Bang'

Comment #189487 by Raiko on June 6, 2008 at 10:59 am

I am just thinking what the parent universe concept would do to the anthropic principle. It would be even more likely that we would exist at some point - so many universes could have given it a try. :)

28. Opponents of Evolution Adopting a New Strategy

Comment #188956 by Raiko on June 5, 2008 at 3:16 am

1) IF the ID movement still insists on teaching 'weaknesses' on evolution, teachers must be carefully monitored to be teaching actual weaknesses and not made up ones. That's the main problem biologically educated people have with the weakness idea. It's not about whether-or-not alleged weaknesses should be taught, it's whether what is being taught ARE actual weaknesses of evolution. Which leads to the next problem with the entire idea:

2) Teaching the 'weaknesses' of evolution is inappropriate for a classroom because the 'weaknesses' are so specific that they do not fit into the regular school schedule - not beyond the fact that like any scientific theory, evolution is being under constant debate, especially in details. A mere mentioning of the "punctuated equilibrium" is as far as it would get before the next subject needs to be taught. Speicific debates are not for classrooms, unless the students aren't supposed to learn anything else about science but become evolution-experts.

29. Put a Little Science in Your Life

Comment #187316 by Raiko on June 1, 2008 at 11:02 pm

♥ This makes me think of Carl Sagan and of why I love going to the lab every morning.

It makes me happy. :)

30. Scientists rally against creationist 'superstition'

Comment #187233 by Raiko on June 1, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Oh cool. In future, if I don't like a subject, I'm just going to say I don't want to sit through the exam.

Yeah, take that, analysis II!!!



... damn. I forgot I'm done with school.

31. Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

Comment #186267 by Raiko on May 30, 2008 at 3:14 am

I say we test them in a double-blind experiment to see if they're as sensitive as they say they are. And if they're not, they foot the bill for the experiment, and the lawyers.


I saw something like this done on TV (but only there, so nothing worth claiming evidence). It didn't work. At all.


About what Richard said, I keep telling my 'esoteric' mom about all the things she claims "why don't these people submit themselves to experiments? If they really can do and feel the things they say, this would be absolutely awesome and stunningly interesting!"

The usual reply I get is that whatever these people do, the 'real' ones do it for themselves, and for those who're 'ready' for it. They at least keep to that and don't demand special rights, though. Ultimately, this keeping it among 'just for our special kind of people' is the perfect strategy to avoid reality, but at least doesn't annoy anyone.

Unlike these people, who'd have good reason to prove their claims, if they want special treatment because of them.

32. Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests

Comment #185311 by Raiko on May 27, 2008 at 12:11 pm

So, under overly simplified circumstances, religion went extinct.

Then they made religious people favorable over others, and they had an evolutionary advantage.

Well. Who'd have guessed?


EDIT: I suggest a computer program on black and green antelopes in a grass-landscape.
Usually, the black ones go extinct.
However, if you add the feature "better at surviving" to the black ones, they amazingly survive.

33. Animal Science Without Evolution

Comment #185096 by Raiko on May 26, 2008 at 11:20 pm

I think what it means is, that it is written in such a deceptive, and emotionally appealing way that you will be content in not actually understanding a damn thing.


Nail --> head --> done!

It should be called "Zoology without Evidence", or false evidence (from what is implied in the article, it will probably contain some straw men attacks against evolution). I am amazed at how this works - shouldn't these kids when they get older and learn about actual evolution blink and say "Oh--- so what I read before was just a misunderstanding of evolution by the author! I see!"? Why DON'T they? I don't get it.

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

Comment #185092 by Raiko on May 26, 2008 at 10:51 pm

Why is it that Darwin keeps getting conflated with how "life began" as we don't know that information as of yet. Seems there have been hypothesis about it but nothing solid yet.

Can anyone lend information about this claim?


Seems a pure creationist construction to me, or a misunderstanding of evolution. Some people can't wrap their head around the fact that for evolution to be true and proved, we do not need to know how life began. Hence they think Darwin should or must have explained the origin of life.

35. The Mind-Altering Role of Incense in Religion

Comment #185086 by Raiko on May 26, 2008 at 10:25 pm

"I have never seen you here before. Have you been newly born recently?"

"No. I just want the free drugs and the wine."

36. Animal Science Without Evolution

Comment #184697 by Raiko on May 26, 2008 at 1:48 am

Of all the things that make me sick, implanting the false idea in children that certain other people are bad, liars, evil, etc. is one of the really bad ones...


How can anyone believe this crap?


I wonder that about adults, but the problem is - children WILL believe this crap. They trust their parents, teachers, family and friends not to tell them utter nonsense.

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

Comment #184694 by Raiko on May 26, 2008 at 1:43 am

I can't believe someone wasted a book on that. :D

Asides from the old Wallace-doesn't-get-enough-credit meme, as far as I know, we know Darwin wrote his idea before Wallace, but didn't publish it, and we know that Darwin's work was much more detailed than Wallace's.

Also, Darwinian and Darwinist sound better whan Wallacian and Wallacist. ;)


Also, we should all cry about giving Lamarck much more credit, then, too. He might not have gotten it entirely right, but he still contributed the major idea of linking inheritance and speciation together.

Would a group of TRUE scientists get really upity about who got there first?


You wouldn't believe it, but there are contributions to Nature about that. There was one just recently.

38. 16% of US science teachers are creationists

Comment #182746 by Raiko on May 20, 2008 at 11:32 pm

Wow. I just imagine my friend (a science teacher) would walk into her school and just do something illegal... And proudly tell people she does.

39. Proving ID is Creationism

Comment #182738 by Raiko on May 20, 2008 at 11:16 pm

Andrew Stich, in principle, ID could not be creationism, but all evidence points towards the fact that the term was invented and is usually used in creationist context - to the point where it would be absolutely misleading to use this term for anything, but a religious context. In any case, we should keep on mind that whether or not it is religious doesn't stop it from failing as a theory.


William Wallace, maybe this would be a novel concept to you, but generally people can collaborate if they agree on some aspect, even without having all their views matched by 100%. This website and the NCSE both have an interest in removing unscientific hogwash from schools and exposing ID for what it is. Unlike many religious people, rational ones are not likely to automatically refuse cooperation when agreeing to disagree.

40. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182736 by Raiko on May 20, 2008 at 11:11 pm

I might be mistaken, but aren't there countries where Scientology is officially labeled a cult? If a teenager may not call a cult what it is, what about entire countries?

41. Surviving an unholy school war

Comment #181956 by Raiko on May 18, 2008 at 10:33 pm

This same man gave me '6 of the best' for being struck by an orange thrown by another boy.


What an offense. I think it's those things that show you that the punishment has little to do with punishing anyone for anything, but with disgusting, personal pleasure.

42. Surviving an unholy school war

Comment #181766 by Raiko on May 18, 2008 at 7:36 am

I don't think that the details of this essay come as a surprise to many people



Sadly not. That's exactly what I imagine catholic school a while back to be like. And I'm just happy I know no one who had to go through that. I would certainly not know how to make them forget.

43. Bible Theme Park Faces Opposition in Tennessee

Comment #181341 by Raiko on May 17, 2008 at 1:09 am

I forgot this earlier, but - yet another place where I can openly 'snog' my girlfriend!

44. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #181338 by Raiko on May 17, 2008 at 1:00 am

Has no one noticed the distinct Nazi-ness of the black circle and stripes around the logo itself?


Not to mention that coffee is brown!

45. Pelosi, Reid shunning Ten Commandments?

Comment #181335 by Raiko on May 17, 2008 at 12:56 am

The prospect of passing anything that respects our social values and the Christian heritage of the nation is extremely difficult.


This sentence needs correction:

The prospect of passing anything that respects ours, but ignores everyone else's social values, and that also ignores the secular foundation of the nation, is extremely difficult.


Now it works.

46. Indian village proud after double 'honor killing'

Comment #181331 by Raiko on May 17, 2008 at 12:45 am

bucketchemist,

going against common consensus, moral or Zeitgeist is only noble when it leads to an advance. The opposite direction can hardly be called moral. Leaning up against society doesn't make your actions truly moral by default. Comparing brute murderers in our time with the Ghandi and Jesus of their times seems to me like an argument that fails the moment you give it some thought.

47. Richard Dawkins Responds to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #181329 by Raiko on May 17, 2008 at 12:33 am

If they seriously used to get along, this is sad. My personal opinion is that it started to be this sad from the moment Shmuley Boteach delivered his rebuttal speech in Toronto.


I agree that it would have been wise not to mention Hitler, as the mere mentioning of the word seems to toss reason out of the window, especially by people who enjoy abusing the name for their own arguments. Nevertheless, refraining from making a certain argument does not make it untrue (And "NO I AM NOT SHRIEKING LIKE HITLER!!" doesn't actually help AFTER the fact has already been pointed out).

Maybe a good idea would have been to say that the rabbi's shrieking is reminiscent of "certain questionable politicians in history". ;)

In any case, Shmuley seems to react like most unreasonable people when their mistakes have been pointed out - instead of saying "You know... I think you have a point and I should really change that," they yell "not true, not true" instead. The second most useful thing to do after yelling "not true, not true" would be to take the criticism anyway (in this case: stop shrieking like Hitler), but that doesn't happen too often, either.

Some people just don't like to acknowledge they might be wrong, have flaws or made a mistake, I suppose.


PS: And thank you, Diacanu. I thought about closing that tag, too, when I read the first comments. (^_^)

48. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, ed. Richard Dawkins

Comment #181068 by Raiko on May 16, 2008 at 11:34 am

One day, I shall make scientific poetry worth reading!

49. Group finds Starbucks logo too hot to handle

Comment #180937 by Raiko on May 16, 2008 at 7:11 am


Pornography, I tell you!

50. Bible Theme Park Faces Opposition in Tennessee

Comment #180837 by Raiko on May 15, 2008 at 11:51 pm

My girlfriend just suggested another theme park ride: "How about... pin the nails on the Jesus?"

More Pages: 1 2 3 | Next