1. Atheist Foundation of Australia Bus Slogan Rejected!

Comment #291986 by gos on November 27, 2008 at 2:27 am

Comment #291899 by ridelo: But I guess you have to see him in his own time. The Middle Ages. What could you expect?

Martin Luther lived from 1483 to 1546, most commonly regarded as part of the Renaissance.

What could we expect? Trenchant political commentary (Machiavelli 1469-1527), humanism (Erasmus 1466-1536), humour (Cervantes 1547-1616; Rabelais 1494-1553), rational thougt (Copernicus 1473-1543), invention (Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519).

There was idiocy and genius in the 16th century, same as today.

2. Christian review of the Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #253581 by gos on September 24, 2008 at 3:45 pm

I also enjoyed the full article very much - it's well-written, and this Giberson seems as nice a Christian as you could care to meet, sort of like Jimmy Carter.

Missing from the this reposted beginning of the article is the quote he starts with: "People who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief." -Peter Medawar

Considering that this leads into his description of scientists vs. religious scholars, and that he has "the knowledge that [his] books may get [him] fired," I begin to question how sincere his Christianity really is...

3. Participating In Religion May Make Adolescents From Certain Races More Depressed

Comment #243022 by gos on September 5, 2008 at 1:57 am

rod-the-farmer

Is there a faith out there that preaches eating raw fish is a sin, and so the Asian students feel conflicted ?

Isn't that a bit of a sweeping cultural generalization? :)

rod-the-farmer

And another thing...just what is the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ? Is that any different from one based on latitude ?

A longitudinal study is one where the same subject(s) are measured repeatedly over a period of time. Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitudinal_study

I'm assuming that you're not just trying to be funny.

4. Better Know a Lobby - Atheism

Comment #240872 by gos on September 1, 2008 at 8:00 am

Forti

By the way, can anyone name any famous atheist artists? Not that it matters, but it's an interesting question. (P.S. Give me a few years and I'll be one!)

I assume you mean visual artists, as opposed to musical or literary ones.

Francis Bacon, Le Corbusier

Longer list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists_(miscellaneous)

5. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #193994 by gos on June 16, 2008 at 9:11 am

Dhamma:

Spinoza: By all means, but if you believe every word of 2000 year old scriptures saying homosexuality is a sin, we really need these reports. Maybe they will claim they're sinners even in the womb now instead :D

They already do! Don't forget that christenings are performed to wash away that original sin...

P.S. My standard reply to those who ask why I didn't christen my children is that I didn't think they were born sinful.

6. Analysis of SB 733: 'LA Science Education Act'

Comment #191776 by gos on June 11, 2008 at 5:10 pm

How many logical fallacies can you count from that quote?

OK, I'll bite :)

[L]et's talk about intelligent design. I'm a biology major. That's my degree. The reality is there are a lot of things that we don't understand.

OK so far. I'll take his word for it.

There's no theory in science that could explain how, contrary to the laws of entropy, you could create order out of chaos.

This is a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of the second law of thermodynamics, which is what I presume is meant by "the laws of entropy."

The second law states that the entropy of a closed system cannot decrease over time, and this is often equated with "chaos becoming ordered," but of course we see constant examples of parts of a system lose entropy while another part of the same system gains more, for a net increase.

The next time somebody spouts this at you, point at a refrigerator.

There's no scientific theory that explains how you can create organic life out of inorganic matter.

This is quite simply false. I hope we've all read enough Dawkins to be able to name more than one such (testable, scientific) theory off the tops of our head.

I think we owe it to our children to teach them the best possible modern scientific facts and theories.

I think we can all agree with this point.

Teach them what different theories are out there for the things that aren't answerable by science, that aren't answered by science.

Well, to be charitable, he doesn't say "scientific" theories, which would make the statement an oxymoron, but he's obviously blurring definitions here.

The questions raised by this statement (Are there "things"/questions that are not answerable by science? Are any of those possible questions interesting? Is a statement that cannot be determined to be true or untrue an answer?) are quite interesting, and worthy of a class or two in the philosophy of science, but they should clearly be separated from the teaching of mainstream scientific theories.

Let them decide for themselves. I don't think we should be scared to do that.

Again, something we should all hope for.

Personally, it certainly makes sense to me that when you look at creation, you would believe in a creator.

This is begging the question.

Let's not be afraid to teach our kids the very best science.

Good last sentence :)

So, that's 4 to 5 logical fallacies by my count.

7. My quest to get de-baptised

Comment #162570 by gos on April 17, 2008 at 4:43 am

FYI:

A moderately well-known Icelander, Helgi Hóseason, has been on the same quest for decades.
http://flickr.com/photos/alliat/768891577/
Ironically his given name, Helgi, means "holy", and his patronymic (only a minority of Icelanders use surnames - Helgi's last name just means that his father's name was "Hósea") shows his father was named after the Old Testament prophet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosea).

A documentary sympathetic to his plight was made:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0446409/
Sorry I don't have any English-language links for the movie.