Comments by DavidMarsh

Comment #123315 by DavidMarsh on February 7, 2008 at 12:10 am

Militant atheists indeed! What a violent bunch we are, "attacking" those poor defenseless religions with explosive and damaging.. err... words.

2. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #120794 by DavidMarsh on February 2, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Nice work by PZ. One thing I've noticed is creationists can never admit they are incorrect or don't know anything about a certain area. Rather than attacking evolution maybe should put some effort into learning a bit more about it and bringing their knowledge up to date.

3. A Letter From Hell

Comment #115906 by DavidMarsh on January 25, 2008 at 2:50 am

The message is that it's not all powerful gods fault your friend went to hell, it's your fault cause you didn't do his work well enough...

religion == guilt once again.

4. Darwin Day (Feb 12th) E-Cards

Comment #114313 by DavidMarsh on January 21, 2008 at 11:12 pm

Feb 12th is Darwins Birthday

(Sorry to spell it out, but I missed why the date was significant and thought it might have been the publishing date of "On the Origin of Species" or something like that)

5. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66884 by DavidMarsh on August 31, 2007 at 11:55 pm

The life of Jesus is told in a series of stories to convey the essence of a life that, however you look at it, was demonstrably an influential one and continues to be so. (Where would Dawkins be without Jesus's extraordinary impact on the Western world? Quite a bit poorer, for one thing.)

Just because "Jesus" (or the idea of jesus?) has had an influence on western society doesn't mean he was (the son of) god, George W has had an influence as well and he certainly isn't, or any other famous person.

Just because someone claims to be a god and others share that belief does not make him so.

Edit: Without proof etc etc.

6. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66882 by DavidMarsh on August 31, 2007 at 11:48 pm

...who appears to have no concept of the "reality" of a thought

This said about the man that coined the term "meme"? I think RD has a very good idea about how real a thought can be.

7. Our Lives, Controlled From Some Guy's Couch

Comment #63397 by DavidMarsh on August 14, 2007 at 4:33 am

It's Descartes malicious demon for the 21st century:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_skepticism

"I will suppose... some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me. I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams which he has devised to ensnare my judgement." René Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy: First Meditation

8. My Road to Atheism, What Took Me So Long and The Aftermath

Comment #47318 by DavidMarsh on June 4, 2007 at 4:36 am

Great read, even though I was never really a religious person I can understand the feeling of revelation when the light bulb is turned on in your mind and it starts to all make sense.

Nothing religion offers can be as awe inspiring as what happens in the real universe. I'm amazed at the simple beauty of how evolution explains complex life all the way up to things like how the universe works, gravity and speed interacting with time and amazing mind blowing stuff like quantum mechanics. It's hard work to grasp most of it, but isn't it great that we get to live in a universe that offers such challenges and a mind that can use reason rather than just reaction and inbuilt instincts?

9. Atheism isn't the final word

Comment #32351 by DavidMarsh on April 16, 2007 at 11:30 pm

Andrew Brown> Just off the top of my head Bob Geldof springs to mind. Can anyone think of any more?

Not exactly what you are looking for as it is more science orientated than humanitarian, but still pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU

10. The God Debate

Comment #29138 by DavidMarsh on April 1, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Munger said: "...Pascal just lost."

Here's a great south park video that relates to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImzFdHd70vU

11. The God Debate

Comment #29135 by DavidMarsh on April 1, 2007 at 8:04 pm

"If there is no God, if I am simply complicated ooze, then the truth is, your life doesn't matter, my life doesn't matter."

Why can't they (religious people) accept that we have it within us to make our own lives meaningful and not rely on the big sky fairy to give it meaning?

"Well, I do believe in the goodness of God, and I do believe that he knows better than I do. God sometimes says yes, God sometimes says no and God sometimes says wait."

What a cop-out: God works in mysterious ways that we can't possibly understand. You can justify anything with this logic. God has the can't-lose position.

"Jesus says, "I am the only way to God. I am the way to the Father." He is either lying or he's not." and "Then Jesus Christ comes along and says, "I am the truth."

I'll let Tyler Durden take this one: "Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken." Saying you are God does not make it so.

Maybe Jesus was wrong, maybe others lied on his behalf. Maybe Jesus didn't ever exist. The "I am the truth and the light" argument really annoys me, it's always quoted as truth by religious people like it's some sort of magic.

12. Saving believers: Former Christian finds calling to preach the good news of atheism

Comment #26665 by DavidMarsh on March 21, 2007 at 3:09 am

Good on him for kicking the religous and god meme, it can be a tough one to crack, especially considering his background. Maybe there's hope yet :)

13. Does God answer prayer? ASU research says 'yes'

Comment #25937 by DavidMarsh on March 15, 2007 at 6:02 pm

There's really two questions that usually get merged together:

1. Does prayer have a positive effect on the subject?
2: If so, is this caused by God/FSM etc?

If point #1 is true, it does not follow that point #2 is true. That's why groups where the patients are not told they are being prayed for fare no better than groups that are not prayed for at all. If the prayed-for-but-not-told group consistantly did better, then it's at least plausible that an omnisent being was at work behind the scenes.

14. In praise of Darwin this Sunday ... in hundreds of churches!

Comment #21950 by DavidMarsh on February 12, 2007 at 1:13 am

>Dawkins and other prominent evolutionists are using the airwaves time and time again to aggressively attack Bible-believing Christians

(sarcasm) Well, I've never seen anything about religion on the television...

Imagine if as much airtime time was dedicated to popular science as it is to church services. If it wasn't for the internet and selective buying at bookshops the amount of science I have been exposed would be massively reduced.

15. Christian Shrine Needs Two Exits, Israel Says

Comment #17838 by DavidMarsh on January 17, 2007 at 1:10 am

"I suppose putting in a second exit in case of fire would reveal a lack of faith..."

I've always felt similar about churches with lightning rods on them, to me it shows a lack of faith.