1. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159035 by IanRobinson on April 11, 2008 at 11:11 am

My problem is that I'm equally suspicious of the ID people and the non-ID people because any charlatan could manipulate the evidence, and I don't know enough to be able to detect when I'm being lied to. What shold I do?

2. Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'

Comment #121426 by IanRobinson on February 3, 2008 at 11:39 am

Quote - Isn't the Daily Telegraph basically a conservative tabloid that is pretty famous for innaccurate, nationalist, and racist wiritng?
End Quote

Nope. You are probably thinking of the Daily Mail.

Ian

3. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #80341 by IanRobinson on October 21, 2007 at 11:35 am

Rather than a petition it would be better to use the nomination system.
http://www.honours.gov.uk/nominate.aspx

4. Only secular schools will overcome sectarianism

Comment #65726 by IanRobinson on August 26, 2007 at 5:08 am

Re: Comment 5 from student grant

I went to a standard comprehensive school in the suburbs of East Belfast in the 1970's and early 1980's. It was not a "Protestant" school. Anyone could attend from the catchment area. There were very few Roman Catholics attending (it had about 1300 pupils in total). The reason for this was that there were Roman Catholic schools that bused the children of parents of that religion out of the area. I would say that there were (indeed are) state schools and then there are religious schools (mainly Roman Catholic) in NI. We need to abolish the religious schools and make them all state schools with no influence from any churches at all.

5. Town Hall Seattle: God Is Not Great

Comment #57199 by IanRobinson on July 18, 2007 at 2:15 pm

This lecture and Q&A is very good indeed. Measured, funny and insightful. 75 minutes well spent.

6. Look Forward to Anger

Comment #52186 by IanRobinson on June 26, 2007 at 12:45 pm

The freedom we have in the UK (and in other countries) was hard won over many years by many people. We need to make sure we keep it. That freedom includes the right to believe nonsense such as religion, but it also gives us the same freedom to say it's nonsense without fear of physical attack.

7. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #51140 by IanRobinson on June 21, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Does anyone know of there are any estimates or published figures on the number of natural miscarriages per year in the UK (or anywhere else)? I've heard and read that it is more than the number of abortions that are performed. I'd like to know how people like Peter Hitchens (who used the abortion argument during this exchange with his brother) would rationalise a deity that allowed such natural wastage.

8. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #51137 by IanRobinson on June 21, 2007 at 4:19 pm

Josh, I've just emailed you an MP3 of the H vs. H segment.

9. Dawkins at the Hay Festival

Comment #46014 by IanRobinson on May 30, 2007 at 2:49 am

"How to question everything."

Sounds like a good book project to me.

10. Your favorite book in the last 25 years?

Comment #37195 by IanRobinson on May 3, 2007 at 4:16 pm

Intervention - Julian May (Fiction)
The Magic Furnace - Marcus Chown (Non Fiction)

11. If they preach the cause of the poor, they're my people

Comment #15837 by IanRobinson on January 3, 2007 at 9:35 am

"Archbishop of Canterbury said: "The poor deserve the best. They do not deserve what's left over when the more prosperous have had their fill." And they don't just talk. They do. Religious communities are among the increasingly few places that bring people together as citizens rather than as consumers - fighting for a living wage and against poverty."

And yet the churches have substantial assets such as land and property. Why don't they sell them and give the money to the poor? Why do they take tax revenue to maintain church buildings?

Ian