1. Dalai Lama defends Islam as peaceful religion

Comment #210433 by Dax on July 14, 2008 at 2:19 pm

See, it's because Islam is such a peaceful religion that in nearly every open armed conflict in the world right now Islam is a major player.

2. Man Sues Church Over 'God Injury'

Comment #209799 by Dax on July 13, 2008 at 11:19 am

Matt Lincoln, 57, says he decided to sue the church after its insurance company denied his claim for medical bills.

I guess this insurance company does not cover "acts of God". Can I now also sue a church if God gives me cancer?

3. Forget not to smite

Comment #209545 by Dax on July 12, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Better watch out Professor Dawkins, God is cooking up a nice lightning bolt for you...

Of course, he's rather busy not answering prayers otherwise we would've had world peace by now. I mean, if even the Pope asks for it, and God is unwilling to grant it, what can a mare mortal expect?

4. Origin of the Novel Species Noodleous doubleous: Evidence for Intelligent Design

Comment #205429 by Dax on July 7, 2008 at 9:08 am

Ah, Scientific Evidence for FSM-ID... we should start teaching FSM-ID in science class! Better then just plain Discovery Institute ID!

5. Can't Darwin and God get along?

Comment #202356 by Dax on July 1, 2008 at 11:24 am

"blabla bla, I don't know, bla bla bla. I really don't know but I believe in god. Bla. That's not a contradiction: we just don't understand it so it must be divine. Bla bla bla blabla bla..."

Nothing new here: same old steaming pile of bovine excrement.

6. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #197520 by Dax on June 22, 2008 at 9:29 am

I don't like his body of work, but I do like McEwan's remarks here. In fact, I totally agree with him. I despise Islam. I despise Christianity. I despise Judeism. I despise new age malarkey. Does this mean I despise the people who are practicing these beliefs? Some, I do... most I just pity for they are trapped in their blind faiths and beliefs, unable to get out.

People should realize that criticizing a religion or other belief is not the same as bashing the practitioners of said religion / belief.

And yes, those fundamentalist Christians in the US are not out to kill is (yet?), but we've experienced Islam's hateful attitude towards a free society on the first hand: 9/11, Madrid, London, Glasgow (luckily it failed), riots in Paris, Mohammed Bouyari, Danish Cartoon Riots, Salman Rushdie's Fatwa, etc. etc. etc.

7. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #193901 by Dax on June 16, 2008 at 7:49 am

I guess it's a Life Style Choice™ to have differences in brain functioning, and God doesn't like Life Style Choices™!

;)

8. As the world becomes smaller, the need to understand each other's faith grows

Comment #192926 by Dax on June 14, 2008 at 9:07 am

No understanding necessary here: why should I try to understand someone's irrational, dangerous, oppressive, bigoted beliefs?

Blair started out okay right after he was elected as PM, but then turned around and became a twat for Jesus... and now this crap.

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

Comment #191674 by Dax on June 11, 2008 at 12:38 pm

Jindal goes wherever the voter's wind blows... he's a hypocrite, a total totalitarian jerk, and I want him out of the state but not into the White House.

10. Debating creationism in Louisiana schools

Comment #191673 by Dax on June 11, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Why is it that all those foundations with "Family" in the title are usually detrimental to the kids in the families?

11. Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Comment #191491 by Dax on June 11, 2008 at 4:12 am

I just read the book and I can say that it is very humorously written, well penned, book. I really recommend it to every skeptic out there; it goes into detail about human gullibility, belief, morality, and some other interesting topics. Go read it!

12. Couple charged in Norway over genital mutilation of daughters

Comment #190059 by Dax on June 8, 2008 at 9:53 am

@Vanitas:
True, however, chances are big that they are not Christian. FGM mostly takes place in Islamic and animalistic african cultures. According to the CIA world factbook the religious makeup of Gambia is:
Muslim 90%, Christian 9%, indigenous beliefs 1%

So, chances are rather big they're Muslim.

13. A New Step In Evolution

Comment #188118 by Dax on June 3, 2008 at 8:37 am

So did he see the E.coli change into a Platypus? No? Then evolution is not true and by definition Creationism is. Praise the Lord!

FYI, I'm not serious. This research is pretty awesome. I know of some other groups who are performing similar experiments. I believe there's a group in Nijmegen, The Netherlands (IIRC) who's doing something like this with S. cerevisiae, a.k.a. Baker's yeast.

14. Mark Steyn vs. the 'Sock Puppets'

Comment #185687 by Dax on May 28, 2008 at 9:58 am

I was hoping Canada would be more sensible compared to the UK and the rest of Europe. My hope and "faith" ( ;) ) in humankind is lost.

*sigh* Time to build my black hole machine and hold the world ransom! *evil laughter* All humans will bow down to me and I will rule the world with my terror of reason and flying monkeys! *more evil laughter*

So, the last bit at least cheered me up a bit.

15. 'Reverse Evolution' Discovered in Seattle Fish

Comment #183501 by Dax on May 22, 2008 at 7:31 am

As someone who works in research, and will continue his academic career in science, I oppose the phrase "reverse evolution"... it's only reverse from the feebleminded perspective of the human mind: "oh, it had armor, then it didn't, now it does again. It must be 'reverse evolution'"
It's a stupid thing to say. Scientists might understand what they are conveying, but the public will just gobble this up with their ignorant ears that only feed on sound bites. It's just as stupid as non-theistic physicists using "god" as a metaphor!

16. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #179695 by Dax on May 13, 2008 at 2:10 pm

What a poorly written article, filled with wild assumptions and incorrect representations of science.
This guy just assumes things... and we all know that assume makes an ass of 'you' and me.

17. On Fitna, the Movie

Comment #178637 by Dax on May 11, 2008 at 7:46 pm

Wether Wilders is incorrect or not, truth is that The Netherlands has huge problems with the Muslim minority, which includes insertion of Islam within Dutch political-cultural live, honor killings, homegrown terrorist groups, crime, etc, etc. And it is not just a problem that The Netherlands is dealing with, but many European nations. The problem is that for many of these Muslim immigrants, solidarity lies not with the population at large, but with the Ummah, and Allah. This is a problem that needs to be addressed: you cannot live freely in a country without respecting the country's freedoms and basic laws.
Instead of attacking Wilders only, all critics should be more equal in their assessment, and also point their fingers at the others, thus a rather large Muslim minority who seems to be so vocal that they're able to change the entire political, social and cultural discourse.

18. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178461 by Dax on May 11, 2008 at 1:07 pm

mordacious1 wrote:

There are no honor killings in France, if indeed this is true, because the bastards do not want to end up in a French prison.

I doubt it is true, seeing how honor killings happen quite frequent in other European countries such as The Netherlands and Denmark (which happen to be 2 countries always perceived as "tolerant", which is another word for "appeasing").

19. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178377 by Dax on May 11, 2008 at 10:13 am

This is it... I lost all hope in the Middle East. Let's just do the merciful thing of turning the entire area into a glass salad bowl.

20. Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions

Comment #176941 by Dax on May 8, 2008 at 11:19 am

For someone who says "every human being bears the image of our maker" he sure killed a lot of these "images of our maker".
Somehow I don't wonder what the "maker" thinks about that, just like I never wonder what faeries think of their portrayal in fantasy literature.

21. Trouble ahead for science

Comment #176939 by Dax on May 8, 2008 at 11:15 am

But we all know that Catholics are not True Christians™©®.

22. The detail in the Devil

Comment #175860 by Dax on May 6, 2008 at 6:56 am

What a waste of research money...

[...]was exploring the possibility of a satanic influence behind the Nazi atrocities during World War II, asking if people could be that inhumane to each other independently of ultra-human assistance, or if a kind of demonic possession was involved[...]

Yes, sure... we've had all these good citizens, deluded to believe in the Aryan supremacy, fueled by centuries of church-endorsed anti-Semitism, so it must be demonic possession!

You want to know why man causes so much suffering? Well, human cruelty just knows no boundaries... only reason and empathy can keep us from turning into monsters. We need to cultivate these two ingredients for a better world. What we do not need is a bunch of idiots who look for supernatural causes to every ill in the world!

These people make me sick!

23. Commentary: Democrats finally getting religion on religion

Comment #157836 by Dax on April 9, 2008 at 3:32 pm

Why does this idiot make it sound like a good thing?

Oh wait, Louisiana... we have an excess of idiots here.

24. Biologists Take Evolution Beyond Darwin Way Beyond

Comment #155906 by Dax on April 6, 2008 at 9:23 am

Of course you will see huge effects from minute genetic changes; effects on a large scale, that is. That's pretty much the gist of The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype. E.O. WIlson wrote on this subject. Smith already did some mathematical work on group dynamics. And then there are all the current scientists who actually don't frame it in such a religiously sounding way: selection takes place on all levels, but the influence cascades down to the one-and-only selecting agent: the gene.

25. Religious groups want Russian cartoon channel shut down

Comment #145984 by Dax on March 18, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Wait, you don't hear people complain when South Park makes fun of non-religious people, do you? I mean, Dawkins response to his cartoon version on TV was simple that they got the accent wrong. I didn't see him and other atheists burning US embassies and such.

That's why South Park is awesome: they say what they want to say, whether you agree with the makers or not.

Ah, religion, the get-out-of-ridicule-and-criticism-free card.

26. Inventor Doesn't Dare Say 'Perpetual Motion Machine'

Comment #124057 by Dax on February 8, 2008 at 8:56 am

Let's face it... when all the cumulative math is in, this machine will not have generated more energy than put in.

Even the magnets themselves will loose their magnetism over time... thus put in energy themselves.

27. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115143 by Dax on January 23, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Funny, especially considering that Darwin was dismayed by the treatment of slaves in South America. Was Darwin making things up or is Campolo making things up?

28. Can Atheists Be Parents?

Comment #107305 by Dax on January 4, 2008 at 11:26 am

1970, today, what is the difference? With Huckabee doing so well, we should be seeing this more often in the near future.

Funny, how a "child should have the freedom to worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents who do not believe in a Supreme Being." But being influenced by parents who do believe in a Supreme Being never was (and still is not) an issue?

29. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101508 by Dax on December 20, 2007 at 1:06 pm

I am unwilling to discuss with someone who obviously misreads everything I say, skipping the entire part about blindly following ideologies, against reason. Misreading that as "ideologies in general".
Al-rawandi, if you want an open debate about the things we touched upon, then first learn to actually read the responses you were given.

30. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101461 by Dax on December 20, 2007 at 11:47 am

al-rawandi:

Suicide bombing... Tamil Tigers. Marxist Atheists. First use of suicide vests. Many of the bombers had never attended a religious ceremony in their lives.

Tamil Tigers are (1) Marxist in political ideology, which fits my description of religion or ideology, and (2) are not atheist, but a Hindu minority. Again, blind ideology, as I stated earlier, like religion makes people do this. Not reason.

Palestinians have sent both Christian and Atheist suicide bombers. (One a former ambulance medic, who was unbearably disgusted with Israeli aggression)

Israeli aggression? Don't make me laugh. The Israelis are actually trying hard not to cause collateral damage. Collateral damage is the Palestinian goal by itself. Both are equally horrible. But besides that, reveal your sources of these incidents, and how many where there? Again ideology at play?

Nazis sent suicide subs, piloted by the a-religious.

Most Nazis were Christian... I thought that fact was established by now. And again, national socialism is a blind ideology, not reason.

Communist Russia (state atheism) sent suicide waves at the Germans.

Fits the ideology bill again, just like I stated in my first comment. Communism, like any other strongly held ideologies, without reason, are just like religions.

Religion is just one idiom. Read the research. Suicide bombing is not where we atheists will make headway.

No, but the fact remains that nearly all suicide bombings were religious or unreasoned ideological in nature, and need, as I stated earlier, "some form of divine or ideological justification beyond that what any reasonable person could come up with".

Some atheists might commit something like this, but no Atheist.

31. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101312 by Dax on December 20, 2007 at 8:07 am

al-rawandi: without promise of reward in the afterlife, you get people just offing themselves, not taking others along. Suicide attacks need some form of divine or ideological justification beyond that what any reasonable person could come up with. Researchers who say otherwise due to years of political correct thinking, are just deluding themselves.

32. Girl, 16, dies after hijab dispute with father

Comment #97455 by Dax on December 12, 2007 at 5:57 am

A repost from my comment on another blog:

Wait, the father's name was Muhammad? Why is it that Muslims go crazy in Sudan when a teacher names a teddy bear Muhammad, or in the entire world when someone publishes some cartoon supposedly depicting a Muhammad, but all are silent when someone named Muhammad acts like a cruel beast? A Dutch muslim once told me that, if you are given the name of the Prophet or one of the Kalifs you are supposed to act righteous. Let's see, 9/11 hijackers Muhammad Atta and Ali, Muhammad Bouyari who shot, stabbed and cut Theo Van Gogh, and the list goes on. Why are Muslim never outraged by this kind of abuse of the Prophet's name?
Again, religion poisons everything.

33. Biologist fired for beliefs, suit says

Comment #95833 by Dax on December 9, 2007 at 9:59 am

"I was applying for tenure as an Astronomy Professor and they didn't hire me because I told them I do not believe in a heliocentric solar system. *cry* *cry*"

34. Boy dies of leukemia after refusing treatment for religious reasons

Comment #92057 by Dax on November 29, 2007 at 7:47 pm

If it is someone's own free choice not to undergo treatment, and thus end his or her own life by choice, religious folk will throw a fit, but if the decision is based upon some religious verse, it is by law allowed? That is the real problem here.

35. Tony Blair: Mention God and you're a 'nutter'

Comment #90492 by Dax on November 25, 2007 at 10:26 am

I feel sorry for my dear British friends: they were stuck with this w**ker for so many years!

Mr Blair, there's a reason why people think you're totally nuts if you bring religion into politics. Sparkling example of someone who brings religion into politics: Ahmadinejad. What is the difference between your faith and his? Nothing but the name. It's both irrational.

36. Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster

Comment #88388 by Dax on November 16, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Funny, I almost thought it read "militant atheist" in the second last paragraph. Oh, wait, it did?!? So, his neighbor is planning to fly planes in skyscrapers? Blow subways up? Storm a tourist hotspot with an AK47? Blow up an abortion clinic? Joined the US Army because of some sinister Christian pentagon recruitment group?
No?
So, what is militant about being atheist?

37. Rome playing politics

Comment #84798 by Dax on November 3, 2007 at 4:33 pm

The problem with Zapatero and other European socialists like him is that they are willing to attack Christianity, but leave the door wide open for Islamic fundamentalism. It was Islamic fundamentalism that paved the road for Zapatero to gain power (remember the bombings?), but he and other European leaders are unwilling to focus on this.
It is strange, the only people who are willing to ignore political correctness and focus on the thread of fundamentalist Islam are the right winged politicians who favor Christianity.
For the rest, Zapatero is doing a good job, but I urge him and other social-liberals in Europe to target the power of religion in general.

38. Tests of faith over 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #83510 by Dax on October 30, 2007 at 9:25 am

And all this comes down to one thing: it's a fantasy tale, people! Pro- or anti-religious or not. It's just like people who claim that the anti-fascist sentiments in Harry Potter are actually anti-Christian sentiments (well, not to pull of a Godwin here, but I see similarities) or teach children not to respect authority.

I guess the religious have their panties in a knot because they discovered their dæmons are poodles or something!

39. Tests of faith over 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #83301 by Dax on October 29, 2007 at 2:54 pm

I'm reading the book right now and so far I, as an adult, enjoy it. I wonder why people are making such a fuzz about this movie. Donahue already complained in a previous article that this movie is about selling religious ideas to kids, and that was, according to him, the rub... strange, I never heard him complain when Narnia was released, with Jesus, euh, Aslan, and all. Or the 10 Commandments, Mozes and all other cartoons targeting kids.
Double standards?

40. Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored

Comment #69537 by Dax on September 11, 2007 at 4:25 pm

Bill Donohue has a condition called Perpetual Pissed Syndrome... he thinks everyone and everything is always out to get the Catholics. Man, saw him with the Hitch on TV and I swear Donohue thought that God Is Not Great only targets Catholicism.

No wonder that South Park showed him shooting the Pope and taking over the Papal seat (including locking up Jesus himself).

41. Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith

Comment #69411 by Dax on September 11, 2007 at 6:51 am

Dutch native, living in the USA, so I could be up to the task of translating those papers, too.

The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance.

Tolerance? The Netherlands? I cringe when I read that! Dutch "tolerance" is more like appeasement of religion, than true tolerance!

42. There is no God and Dawkins is his Prophet

Comment #66273 by Dax on August 29, 2007 at 2:46 pm

[...] or does not even make an effort to understand them

What is there to understand? "Oh, you believe to know the mind of our unproven Creator, though he cannot be known using our feeble human abilities." No, I still don't understand it.

You cannot fully understand something that is made up and has no real verifiable framework to compare it to.

43. Another view

Comment #66188 by Dax on August 29, 2007 at 7:48 am

Hmmm, for some reason I seem to be missing the argument Arendt is trying to put forth. Oh wait, he is not making an argument, but just says "you are wrong"? Now I get it.

44. PZ Myers sued for a negative review in a blog post

Comment #64636 by Dax on August 21, 2007 at 5:05 am

Well, crackpot Harun Yahya already ordered a Turkish court to close a couple of wordpress blogs with bad reviews on them (and it ended up blocking wordpress.com altogether). What's next: Michael Bay suing Roger and Ebert for saying that Pearl Harbor was a terrible movie?
I'm just going to walk around with court orders, handing them out to anyone who criticizes my supremacy and claim to world leadership!

45. Atheists and believers have got religion wrong

Comment #63656 by Dax on August 15, 2007 at 8:42 am

Or worse, there's these patronising stuck-up columns that go, "Aren't these Afghan peasants awful? [...]Their sexual politics is frankly shocking, and there's no excuse these days because with the internet they could order Armistead Maupin novels on Amazon and they'd be out to the caves of Tora Bora within a fortnight. [...]"
There's always a rational basis to the irrationality of religion, and however bizarre, religious ideas usually reflect the reality of people's lives.

This is what bothers me... I taste a huge dash of cultural relativism here, and I hate that flavor of faux pas cultural guilt complex of the west. Cultural relativism only works when the cultural aspects we compare are harmless, which, in the case of those "Afghan peasants" and their "sexual politics", it is not! They don't need no damn Amazon.com ordered books to realize that Islamic sexual oppression is harmful! It is in fact religious ignorance (and thus not stupidity) that perpetuates this... a religious ignorance, which has, according to the author, a "rational basis", and "reflect the reality of people's lives".
Turn that last part around: it is not that "religious ideas usually reflect the reality of people's lives", but that the reality of people's lives reflect religious ideas, in all its harmful effects on humanity.

46. Debate between Sam Harris and Chris Hedges

Comment #50658 by Dax on June 19, 2007 at 9:01 am

Hedges uses the "that is not my God" argument. In other words he uses semantics to defend what he calls "faith", never actually stating what faith exactly is.
Hedges is a fringe lunatic and just listening to his bovine excrement makes my blood pressure reach deadly levels.
What a !

Sam Harris on the other hand, is clear, concise and intellectually stronger.

47. In the know

Comment #50182 by Dax on June 15, 2007 at 2:54 pm

Okay, I have the feeling this flake has not truly read TGD... if he did he would've noticed that in Dawkins' vision (and for most atheists this is true, too) this thing called atheism is de facto atheism; the probability of the existence of a deity is so small that it would be stupid to call oneself agnostic.

This is exactly what Russell was saying himself. No proof for a god and no proof against one... just tons of proof that our concept of god is false. Why believe in something you don't have proof for either way? Does Mark Vernon believe in blurfs?. Can he proof a blurf does not exist? No? He must be agnostic towards blurfs! He cannot be an ablurfist! No matter that I just pulled this word, blurf, out of the orifice between my un-intelligently designed muscular seating-pillows, and that I do not have a concept of what a blurf is, just like we humans don't have a single concept of what a god truly is.

48. In Saudi Arabia, a view from behind the veil

Comment #48499 by Dax on June 8, 2007 at 7:41 am

Me almost thinks the US bombed the wrong country.

But seriously, we only deal with the Saudi's (who's royal members are known for bisexual encounters, drinking, et cetera) is because of that black gold.

God really f***ed things up, right? He gave all the oil to the heathens who do not believe in the divinity of Jesus.
Oh, wait, God does not exist.

49. Atheism is pretentious and cowardly

Comment #48062 by Dax on June 6, 2007 at 1:00 pm

Atheism is pretentious in the sense of claiming to know more than it does.

Hmmm, what was that saying again about one kitchen utensil referring to the other kitchen utensil as not reflecting any visible colored light?

Religion is pretentious for it not only claims to know there is such a thing as a god (or gods), but also what this god is like, how it operates and how it thinks about mere mortal decisions such as what to eat, what to wear and what pleasurable acts people perform and with whom, to just name a view things.

Is a yoga class "religious"? What about a performance of a requiem? What about Hitchens' own belief in the saving power of literature? In practice, "religion" cannot really be separated from "culture".

Ah, the famous "that's not what I believe" defense went before this example of the "bending semantics" approach. The answer is "No, none of those examples are religious". My 5-days a week run feels awesome, "spiritual" (in a Harrisian sense), awe inspiring even*, but is it religion? If these things are religion than anything is religion, including things God forbid such as premarital sex, non-heterosexual or non-procreation focused sex even, or getting drunk with a couple of friends. If that is religion, too, well then we all have to get tax exempt status!
______
* just to think of how all these electrons run down my neurons, releasing neurotransmitters in my synaptic clefts, causing calcium de- and repolarization, signaling to my muscles for the myofibrils to contract and relax, burning ATP in the process, using and releasing chemicals finding its way into complex metabolic pathways. Think of the hormones or the mechanical movement, the evolution that gave rise to this specific means of motion and the physics that gave rise to the chemistry that gave rise to evolution.

50. Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

Comment #43351 by Dax on May 21, 2007 at 6:47 am

And of course, on Sept. 11, 19 Muslims were so determined to murder helpless Christians and Jews that they were willing to die to shed the blood of other religions.

(Emphasis mine)
And see here, the narrow mindedness. The "other religions" that he speaks about are 'Christians and Jews'. Did he ever consider that the attackers tried to kill human beings of every religion or non-religion that exists in the US? That they did not just try to kill Christians and Jews, but human beings? Were there no other religious and non-religious people among the victims, or don't they count?