1. Penn & Teller's Bullshit - Holier Than Thou With Christopher Hitchens

Comment #44744 by Alric on May 25, 2007 at 8:43 am

This was a very good episode. Trylu enjoyed the Bible and fundamentalism episodes. However, I became disinterested in BS after the second hand smoke and hybrid car episodes. They were way off the mark on those.

2. Unintelligent Design

Comment #40191 by Alric on May 13, 2007 at 5:59 pm

PZ Myers from Pharyngula puts it best. This is the response I wish I could write. Hope he forgives me for copy/pasting him:

"I particularly liked his response to the claim that "people need religion". No, they do not. I don't, Dawkins doesn't—and it's not as if we are weird mutants. You could say that people need stories, people need reconciliation, people need consonance with their world, and religion tries to provide those things…but the message we need to get across is that religion is a flawed, illusory, and erroneous strategy for providing for human needs, and we can do better."

3. Unintelligent Design

Comment #40138 by Alric on May 13, 2007 at 9:47 am

Am I the only one who thinks Atran is a very poor writer and does not express his ideas clearly?

I've said this before; he reminds of post-modernists that hide their lack of substance behind obfuscating language. I have very short patience for such device.

4. Medical 'Miracles' Not Supported by Evidence

Comment #31686 by Alric on April 13, 2007 at 9:02 pm

There has never been a miraculously cured amputee. 'nuff said!

5. Answers To the Atheists

Comment #30282 by Alric on April 7, 2007 at 11:55 am

Atheists are dogmatic inasmuch reality is dogma.

6. Darwin's God

Comment #24060 by Alric on March 4, 2007 at 2:40 pm

What I don't understand is Scott Atran's strong reaction against Dawkins & Co. On the beyond belief meetings he was very angry at Dawkins and others for suggesting we could or should get rid of religion. Even if religious belief is a hard wired adaptation and Scott is right; why must we assume its beneficial anymore.


By the way, I tried reading Atran's book. "In gods we trust : the evolutionary landscape of religion", and I failed. It has a post-modernist flavor that I could not stomach. I think Dawkin's idea that we are predisposed to accept ideas from elders in the abscence of evidence, religion being a byproduct of this predisposition, a most acceptable hypothesis.

7. Believing In Things Unseen Is Not Delusion

Comment #20724 by Alric on February 6, 2007 at 6:39 am

Talk about mental gymnastics to justify what he "feels to be truth"! In the bag he goes with Scott Atran.

8. Sam Harris's Faith in Eastern Spirituality and Muslim Torture

Comment #16564 by Alric on January 7, 2007 at 10:45 am

The problem is that Sam invokes Bertrand Russel's orbiting teapot argument, and rightly so, in reference to the christian God. This argument can also be applied to paranormal phenomena where no evidence or indication that its possible exists.

It does seem to be a minor inconsistency within his writings that has been greatly exagerated by Gorenfeld.

I'd like to point out that this does not substract merit from the bulk of his work exposing the inconsistencies and defficiencies of religion in general.

9. Sam Harris's Faith in Eastern Spirituality and Muslim Torture

Comment #16552 by Alric on January 7, 2007 at 9:55 am

I was worried this would happen. Although Gorenfeld's claims are exaggerated, Sam does vacilate when confronted directly with the question of whether phenomena like reincarnation can occur. I witnessed this on the Beyond Belief meeting when Lawrence Krauss asks him directly about reincarnation. He is unable to come up with a staright answer. Up to that point his arguments were cogent and direct which made the vacilation even more interesting by contrast.

I still admire Sam and his work but I would be interested in knowing where his hesitation comes from.

10. Lawrence, Kansas : Speech

Comment #2875 by Alric on October 24, 2006 at 11:03 am

I wouldn't mind the realplayer issue if it worked. Currently the link is unreachable.

I would buy this lecture from the iTunes music store in a sec.

Cheers!