1. Evolution: What is 'Natural'?

Comment #178466 by rthille on May 11, 2008 at 1:14 pm

Natural selection created brains which have a mechanism we term 'morals' in order to maximize the success of those genes. In small groups/tribes, without the human morals we have evolved, we would have been unable to cooperate and would have been much less successful. Wolves, I contend, have morals as well. Think about a wolf pack where the Alpha couple are the only breeders, and the other females act as 'nannies' to the pups. If a nanny wolf were to kill a pup not it's own, I have to believe that the rest of the pack would react negatively toward the nanny wolf, but further, I believe that they would see the act as "immoral", as evolution has tuned the brains of wolves to succeed in packs and the emotional reactions we term 'morals' must reinforce those actions which help the pack (and therefore the genes) succeed.

As for humans, we evolved our moral sense in small groups, but with our evolved intellect, we can see that the best way to guarantee our success as individuals is to aid the success of our species, and further most if not all the other species which make up our ecosystem. Sure, we wouldn't find it immoral to wipe out the polio virus or the common cold. But if it was determined that thru unintended consequences doing so would have detrimental effects on other species or ourselves, we _would_ find it immoral.

Morality is just a higher-level abstraction in brains for optimizing the success of the genes creating those brains.

2. Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways

Comment #166736 by rthille on April 23, 2008 at 12:01 pm

My daughter learned a little about the Protestant split in world history in high school here in CA. She says she doesn't believe in god, but @ 16, I don't think she's though about it really that much. As for the teacher, I get the feeling from talking with him that he's probably a non-theist, but not sure.

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

Comment #159217 by rthille on April 11, 2008 at 5:03 pm

This is one time where I think the $250,000/copy fine seems appropriate. This was willful, for commercial gain, not some kids downloading a song or CD from the net. I'd also charge them with the felony for the removal of the copyright if I were able...

4. 'Darwin chip' brings evolution into the classroom

Comment #157768 by rthille on April 9, 2008 at 2:07 pm

Those "former presidential candidates" don't "think" that evolution is only a theory. They _believe_ it's only a theory. There is no thinking going on...

5. Expelled Overview

Comment #149476 by rthille on March 25, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I might go see it, but I'd never buy a ticket for it. I'd buy a ticket for another movie in the same theater starting at a similar time, if I'm lucky, one to which I'd like to give money.

I tried to get my Bush supporting (former) friends to see Fahrenheit 911 and they wouldn't because they didn't want to give him any money. That of course wasn't the real reason, since they wouldn't do what I suggested above either. Mostly they just wanted to remain ignorant and safe in their belief that they were right.

6. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #138013 by rthille on March 3, 2008 at 6:36 pm

My sister (works @ Stanford) got me two tickets. I'm planning on taking some copies of TGD in paperback to hand out to people who are interested.

7. Pakistan blocks YouTube over blasphemous video

Comment #133156 by rthille on February 25, 2008 at 6:04 pm

Re #3 & #4, the quote doesn't say that the FBI or homeland security department though the video shouldn't be released, only that they had concerns about the outcome if it was released. Now, those concerns seem to me to be a bit prejudiced against followers of Islam. After all, why would anyone get violent over the release of a movie? (ok, that was sarcasm)

The way I see it, our security departments _should_ be concerned that a bunch of wackos are going to go batshit over a video and riot. Now I don't think that we should self-censor, but we should be prepared for the results. And we should express dismay and disgust at those who are violent as the result of the free expression of ideas.

I'm still of the opinion that we should have a national desecrate a flag day, to celebrate the fact that we can, but I can't seem to get a quorum in favor of that...

8. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126092 by rthille on February 12, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Would putting a small drop of pig urine on the back of someone's hand be considered cruel and unusual punishment? :-) What if it's really just water?

ok, I'm not helping things, but I get really tired of the people who want to kill people for expressing an idea.

9. Imagine No Religion

Comment #121912 by rthille on February 4, 2008 at 10:46 am

Josh, do you see any problem with me reproducing this (printing on 8.5"x11" sheets, or mayby 1/2 sheets) with the "Imagine No Religion (twin towers)" images on the other side to hand out?

10. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #119142 by rthille on January 31, 2008 at 10:49 am

Josh, thanks for all your great work on this site and in the name of rationalism!

Have a great birthday!

Robert

11. MySpace: No place for Atheists?

Comment #118121 by rthille on January 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

But isn't Myspace just for ridiculous wankers anyway? I think I visited a link to a myspace page once and my eyes bled for a week.
We caught our daughter on myspace after we told her it was forbidden and now I just block port 80 for her...not that she probably isn't on it at school...

12. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114524 by rthille on January 22, 2008 at 11:14 am

BicycleRepairMan, yeah, but he wants to amend the constitution so that we won't have the separation of church and state.

On the other hand, he seems like he's very willing to try to work within the system (Constitution and constitutional laws already enacted) to try to get what he wants, as opposed to Bush who just does what he wants, illegally.
Since I don't believe the country would, in my lifetime, go for amending the constitution to remove the separation of church and state, I believe Ron Paul would be a better, safer, president than Bush or someone like him. But I also don't believe he would be working toward an outcome I would approve of. Basically, I think he'd be struggling to go in the wrong direction (at least on a lot of issues), wasting a lot of time and effort. (Though, now that I think about it, having the government go nowhere might be a _good_ thing :-)

13. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114511 by rthille on January 22, 2008 at 10:44 am

It's Ron Paul's views on Abortion, Evolution and the separation of Church and State that have me rejecting him...

I like a lot of his views on smaller government in peoples' lives. The trouble is, the parts he _does_ want to be involved in...

14. The God Delusion: Now Available in US Paperback

Comment #113082 by rthille on January 18, 2008 at 2:24 pm

I got 10 copies to hand out via Amazon. With the preorder discount and a coupon I had for taking a survey, they only cost me ~$9.50 each. Not bad, but it'd still be nice to be able to buy them 'wholesale' or via a 'group buy' or something...

Now I just have to figure out what to write inside the front cover and to whom to give them...

15. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109220 by rthille on January 8, 2008 at 3:34 pm

What work does UNICEF do to end religion? Does the work it does with children help them to shake off the mental shackles of religious indoctrination? I'd sooner donate to the RDF based on what I know so far. But this is on a more personal note. I'm buying books to give to people I know who might be 'on the fence'. Why would that be a waste of money?

16. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109212 by rthille on January 8, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Thinking about tithing and such, I thought that I should start putting my money where my mouth is. So I put in an Amazon order for 10 copies of TGD in paperback to hand out.

I'll probably keep it up with various other titles. Does anyone have any suggestions for which books would be good 'conversion' material? I really like 'Sense and Goodness without God' by Richard Carrier, for its well founded argument against the existence of god(s), but I'm not sure it'd win many converts because the intro philosophy in one of the early chapters was quite the slog...

17. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101444 by rthille on December 20, 2007 at 11:21 am

Maybe you should kill the Buddha then? :-)

18. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101434 by rthille on December 20, 2007 at 11:06 am

So, if you O.D. on morphine to kill yourself, that wouldn't be a bad way to spend eternity. Stupid God, can't even close the loopholes...

19. Al Qaeda: We're open to questions

Comment #101431 by rthille on December 20, 2007 at 11:04 am

Here's my question:
"If your god 'Allah' does exist, why is he such a fucking asshole?"

20. Believe it or not

Comment #97572 by rthille on December 12, 2007 at 11:27 am

The trouble is, too many people are willing to ignore illegal acts if they see the acts as in their favor. I'd love to have the power to, at a stroke in the middle of the night, swap all the christian displays for islamic ones and watch the christians' heads explode when they saw them in the morning. Then maybe, just maybe they'd get the point. Remember, laws should be written and applied as if the government will eventually be corrupt and opposed to your views.

21. Atheism's Wrong Turn

Comment #93879 by rthille on December 4, 2007 at 11:31 am

I wonder how supportive the author would be of a religion where it's adherents where taught that the older you get after attaining your majority, the worse your afterlife would be, and that therefore your first act after becoming 18 years old should be to kill yourself. Of course the priests and parents indoctrinating their children in such beliefs would only be staying alive so as to aid others, sacrificing themselves in order to save others. Would the author see this as child abuse? What about when waves of the newly adult started to kill themselves?
Where is the line delineating child abuse from not child abuse? I'm certainly not sure, but I'm certain that inculcating _some_ beliefs could be classified as abuse.

22. Romney's Mormonism is fair game

Comment #89434 by rthille on November 20, 2007 at 5:39 pm

Shouldn't that be Faux News (Fair and Balanced[tm])?

23. God's honest truth?

Comment #79785 by rthille on October 18, 2007 at 2:03 pm

Having a compulsory religion survey class that teaches the origins and stated beliefs of all/many of the various faiths would probably go a long way toward helping kids deal with the indoctrination they undoubtedly get at home. Has to happen at a pretty young age I'd imagine though.

24. Fox News Attacks 'Godless' Free Thought Radio

Comment #78313 by rthille on October 12, 2007 at 12:05 pm

PlanetSweet, you seem to be confusing Fox News with a 'reputable news organization'

25. Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal

Comment #73231 by rthille on September 24, 2007 at 2:19 pm

That's it! I'm going after all my high school teachers that insisted that Zeus and the other gods I worship were just mythology! How dare they denigrate my religious views!

26. 'Root of All Evil? The Original Program' available now on DVD

Comment #71873 by rthille on September 19, 2007 at 8:19 pm

Josh, excellent news. I decided that I trusted the morals of Richard Dawkins and went ahead and ordered the DVDs (both the original program and the unedited interviews, along with some 'A' buttons) without waiting for a reply. Athiests seems to have much stronger morals than believers. My wife did Credit & Collections for 15 years and she seemed to think that the biggest sheisters were the Christians. Of course, she thinks I need to stop reading all the stuff I'm reading (just finishing "Why I Am Not A Muslim") because I'm becoming 'deranged'. Of course, watching the clip from The View today didn't help :-)

27. 'Root of All Evil? The Original Program' available now on DVD

Comment #71714 by rthille on September 19, 2007 at 2:14 pm

I'm interested in ordering, since I haven't been able to bring myself to set in front of the computer watching the low-qualities copies floating on the internet. I am curious though if the money goes to a good cause, like the R.D. Foundation, or running this website. Just curious I guess.

28. Good News: Both our Foundations are now Officially Recognized as Charities

Comment #70741 by rthille on September 16, 2007 at 7:56 pm

So, is it 10% of gross or net that we should tithe to the RDF?

Actually, on a less humorous note, Is there someplace we can buy a dozen or more copies of the God Delusion to give out or donate to the local high school library?

29. 'Jane Doe' Testifies as Trial of Polygamist Leader Begins

Comment #70221 by rthille on September 14, 2007 at 11:52 am

In reply to comment #1, about the 3 wives to get into the highest levels of heaven... Don't the people who suffer the most here on earth deserve the best in the afterlife? :-)

30. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #69325 by rthille on September 10, 2007 at 10:38 pm

I thought of this for a T-shirt slogan:

Not Suffering From
The God Delusion

but wacky believers would just think I didn't like the book...

31. Islamic Finance and Its Critics

Comment #62636 by rthille on August 10, 2007 at 1:50 pm

I'm not sure I understand the difference between the mortgage I have and an islamic type, where the bank buys the property and sells it to me, with payments over time, at a higher price. Is this anything more than a paper-fiction of a difference? I suppose that with an islamic type purchase I wouldn't be able to refinance if the rates dropped because the purchase price was set ahead of time..

32. The Out Campaign

Comment #61109 by rthille on August 3, 2007 at 4:51 pm

Well, since my wife won't let me wear my 'Jesus hates me' t-shirt 'out', I'll have to get a 'Scarlet A' "out" shirt.

33. Is Christianity Good for the World? A discussion between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson

Comment #55591 by rthille on July 11, 2007 at 3:43 pm

If you are on the receiving end, there is only death, and if you are an agent delivering this genocide, the long-term result is brief victory and death at the end. So who cares? Picture an Israelite during the conquest of Canaan, doing every bad thing that you say was occurring back then. During one of his outrages, sword above his head, should he have stopped for a moment to reflect on the possibility that you might be right? "You know, in about three and a half millennia, the consensus among historians will be that I am being bad right now. But if there is no God, this disapproval will certainly not disturb my oblivion. On with the rapine and slaughter!" On your principles, why should he care?

34. Small, Yes, but Mighty: The Molecule Called Water

Comment #55497 by rthille on July 11, 2007 at 9:55 am

I don't know enough physics, but I distrust statements like, "if this or that physical constant was just slightly different, the universe as we know it would have collapsed or been a desert." Maybe that physical constant is the result of some far more fundamental particle/constant interactions, and any changes at that level to introduce the physical constant change would still result in a universe conducive to life, since other particles/constants would change in unexpected/unpredictable (at this time) ways.
In short, I think we lack the imagination and science to truely predict the form of a universe where any physical constant was different than our own. Therefore to say that a universe that supports intelligent life is extremely unlikely is not very well supported.

35. Small, Yes, but Mighty: The Molecule Called Water

Comment #55352 by rthille on July 10, 2007 at 5:57 pm

but I like brocolli and spinach.

36. Genetic Engineers Who Don't Just Tinker

Comment #54654 by rthille on July 8, 2007 at 11:17 am

Genetically engineering an organism which would make petroleum wouldn't create energy, it'd just transform it. The question would be where would the energy come from and how efficient would the transformation be?
Realistically, there's only one source of energy: nuclear. Solar is nuclear at a distance, wind and hydro are solar, petroleum is just stored plant energy (solar again).
As for the transformation, if the bacteria are going to be doing biomass conversion on waste products (say like methane capture at a landfill or water treatment plant), then the question is, are they going to be that much more efficient than any other method?
Certainly as a switchover step something like this may be necessary given cars and other oil uses. Even generating electricity for "free" given fusion wouldn't solve all our problems in the short term, given the need for transportable energy and the lack of efficient storage for electrical energy.

37. Better God-fearing than sneering

Comment #38653 by rthille on May 8, 2007 at 10:29 pm

I think one thing about the article is correct. Harris doesn't understand what it is to be Christian. Or religious at all. I don't either. I've talked with people who believe in a higher power. (Mostly) Rational people who can be scientific and logical about most things, but still believe in some higher power that has the power to create the universe, and at the same time cares about them as individuals. I certainly don't understand it. It's like they simultaneously have tea and not-tea...To paraphrase an old commercial for the UNCF, "A mind is a terrible thing."