1. Expelled Overview

Comment #152662 by andyinsdca on March 31, 2008 at 10:04 am

Unfortunately, they have Margaret Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) profiled correctly. She was a huge fan of eugenics, including this quote "A stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring." (from Wikipedia, footnote #13)

2. Navy vet: Chaplains tried converting me

Comment #43477 by andyinsdca on May 21, 2007 at 3:46 pm

MiloC

This looks like a meme we may need to drop as atheists...

This link mentions that Jefferson (as President) specifically allowed chaplains on US Navy vessels in the Navy Regulations of 1802:
http://www.persuade.tv/frenzy2/PR11SECNAV.pdf

I'm trying to find more about this now....

3. Navy vet: Chaplains tried converting me

Comment #43474 by andyinsdca on May 21, 2007 at 3:11 pm

MiloC

I thought it was too, but for the love of the FSM, I can't find info on it anywhere.

4. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35775 by andyinsdca on April 28, 2007 at 8:30 pm

It's too bad that this dude didn't spend his time and money doing something useful. If he's so damn religious and pious, why didn't he feed homeless kids or teach illiterate adults to read? That would do far more to show that his religion is good than building some stupid monument.

5. Here Comes the Fourth Musketeer.

Comment #33717 by andyinsdca on April 21, 2007 at 10:40 am

May 1 is a red-letter day for atheists this year. Rush's new album comes out and so does this book!
I think I might be sick that day...in fact, I can feel a cold coming on already. *SNEEZE*

6. U.N. Draft Cites Humans in Recent Climate Shifts

Comment #29937 by andyinsdca on April 5, 2007 at 3:15 pm

Can someone explain what this has to do with the discussion of atheism?

7. Neil Peart cites The God Delusion in new album's liner notes

Comment #28657 by andyinsdca on March 30, 2007 at 9:19 am

Their lyrics helped lead me to atheism, actually! It's great to see the reference to TGD in the liner notes.

Is it time for ANOTHER Rush tattoo?

8. Former exec in Irvine says he was fired over religion

Comment #19468 by andyinsdca on January 27, 2007 at 12:49 pm

There are already laws on the books about intimidation..depending on the jurisdiction, they're called making a threat, making a terrorist threat, etc. So, the KKK argument is a strawman.

The the government should not be in the business of taking money and giving it to ANY religious group.

Here in the US, we have the freedom of association. That freedom should extend EVERYWHERE, not just where the government wants it to. So, if I don't want to rent my house to a Christian, I'm free to do so. If a Christian doesn't want to rent to me or hire me, that's their business. If I want to start a whites-only club, that's my business. If someone wants to start a college fund for people of a certain skin color (see UNCF), that's their business. If someone wants to join a group based on the belief of an invisible sky man, we can point and laugh, but it's their business.

9. Former exec in Irvine says he was fired over religion

Comment #19239 by andyinsdca on January 25, 2007 at 5:40 pm

It's Meguiar's business. He/they are free to run it as they see fit. Want to hire only Christians? Go for it. Want to hire only Muslims? Go for it. It's their business and as much as it offends me that they (allegedly) fired a guy for not being a Christian, they are free to do that.

I'm also free not to buy Meguiar's because of this stupidity.

That's what the free market (in ideas and in business) brings us. We cannot and should not enforce our morality on them through the force of government.

10. Halting progress

Comment #17039 by andyinsdca on January 10, 2007 at 10:20 am

I did it using the HTML tags for italics. This thing is eating my attempt at showing the tag. So, it's like this:
Less than symbol, (shift-comma on my US keyboard), an "I" then a greater than symbol (shift-period) starts the section you want in italics. Then, to close the italics, Less than symbol, (shift-comma on my US keyboard), a "/I" then a greater than symbol (shift-period)

11. Halting progress

Comment #17037 by andyinsdca on January 10, 2007 at 9:59 am

but the condition is that they do not impose those beliefs on others

Nor, should you impose your beliefs on someone else. As much as I despise religion, it's (sort of) a private organization and it's free to include or exclude anyone based on any criteria it sees fit. So, if some church wants to exclude gays, that's the church's business, certainly none of yours.

The same goes for your example B&B that doesn't want to host gays. It's a business, it's up to them to decide what customers they'll serve and those that they'll deny. If they decide they don't want to serve a segment of the population, they just lose that segment as a potential market. In the meantime, there will be (and are!) B&Bs that cater to nothing but gays.

That's the beauty of the free market of ideas and business (and freedom!)

12. What are you optimistic about? Why?

Comment #15676 by andyinsdca on January 2, 2007 at 12:40 am

Unfortunately, I do not share Dr. Dawkin's optimism about the death of religion. No matter the total weight of science/reason, people will continue to grasp for religion as a way to do a number of things, some nefarious (like controlling a group in their society, such as we see in Islamic countries that use Islam as a way to control women or simple chicanery/con games like a televangelist) and some naive, as in believing in an afterlife.

And, as flippant as this sounds, there are still plenty of stupid people that simply won't listen to reason.

We (atheists) are fighting against thousands of years of tradition and indoctrination; this momentum will be nearly impossible to overcome in the near (or far) future.