1. Losing my religion

Comment #233579 by Tycho the Dog on August 20, 2008 at 4:09 am

Richard Dawkins makes me want to pray, the same as Homer Simpson makes me want to exercise - for fear that I, too, will end up like him, a whining pub bore with the prose style of an internet conspiracy theorist.

2. Last Night's TV: The Genius of Charles Darwin, Channel 4

Comment #233517 by Tycho the Dog on August 20, 2008 at 2:23 am

I can't see the point in criticising thiis series for not being a different one. What would the point have been of getting Prof Dawkins (the world's best known atheist) to present a programme on the TOE and not have it focus heavily on its devastating implications for religion - and not just religious fundamentalism, as his chat with Archbishop of Canterbury made clear.

But I agree with gcdavis that it is very difficult to win a straightforward argument with the deluded and the calculatingly disingenuous. In my opinion, a better approach is to ask apparently simple, honest questions, a la Louis Theroux, that encourage the interviewee to reveal the full extent of their ignorance or mendacity.

3. Religion out of medicine, a new message for Ontario doctors

Comment #232403 by Tycho the Dog on August 18, 2008 at 4:03 am

I don't understand the details here. Jesus86 seems to be saying that there is no provision for 'private' healthcare in Ontario, only what the state provides - free at point of delivery, and funded through taxation. Is this the case?

4. Bill Maher hates your (fill in the blank) religion

Comment #227943 by Tycho the Dog on August 11, 2008 at 4:34 am

I really don't understand all the agonising over comparisons with 'Expelled'. There's a fairly clear difference between duping someone into admitting something to camera that they believe but want to keep hidden ('Religulous'), and deliberately editing what someone says to make it sound like they're saying something else ('Expelled').

There is also an important and ongoing need to expose any hypocrisy, immorality and ignorance amongst the great and good who impose their rules on us - politicians, religious leaders, moral crusaders - while happily ignoring them themselves.

5. Richard Dawkins, the naive professor

Comment #226394 by Tycho the Dog on August 8, 2008 at 3:24 am

Re Comment #225904 by Richard Dawkins

C4 was recently hauled over the coals by Ofcom following an investigation into complaints about a shoddy 'documentary' entitled 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'. In particular, it was found guilty of breaking broadcasting rules by deliberately misrepresenting scientific opinion and lacking impartiality.

It seems C4's lawyers might well have been overcompensating in the light of this ruling by requiring Prof. Dawkins to lay his atheistic credentials on the table up front, as it were, to preempt any complaints about bias.

6. Call to teach biblical creation as science

Comment #225582 by Tycho the Dog on August 7, 2008 at 3:26 am

Comment #225560 by DavidSJA

Try the Skeptic's Annotated, available at http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/

It's entertaining and informative.

7. Historian predicts the end of 'science superpowers'

Comment #218175 by Tycho the Dog on July 25, 2008 at 2:15 am

Comment #217544 by Tezcatlipoca & Comment #217639 by Border Collie - effectively countered in Comment #217641 by Dr Doctor

What the superstitious masses believe is not important, unless they can elect their leaders/shape national education policies on the basis of those superstitions.

If Americans continue to elect people to influential positions on the basis of shared irrational beliefs, then the quality of American education will ultimately suffer.

8. Churches' secret talks to stop gay surge

Comment #206174 by Tycho the Dog on July 8, 2008 at 6:40 am

Comment #206055 by Corylus,

From Wikipedia...

Complementarianism teaches that a wife should be submissive to her husband in all things, the exception being she should never "follow her husband into sin."

9. Scientists rally against creationist 'superstition'

Comment #187452 by Tycho the Dog on June 2, 2008 at 6:48 am

Crap survey with loaded questions and answers.

The "intelligent design theory" says that certain features of living things are best explained by the intervention of a supernatural being, e.g. God.

10. We happy hooligans

Comment #185901 by Tycho the Dog on May 29, 2008 at 2:56 am

I got this far and figured the rest wasn't worth my time...

Without the right training and receptivity, a great deal of the world remains unavailable to us. This is perhaps most classically demonstrated in art appreciation, or jazz, or wine, or any of the "acquired tastes."

11. Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology 'cult'

Comment #182829 by Tycho the Dog on May 21, 2008 at 2:52 am

The behaviour of the British police in the article above doesn't surprise me. Huge numbers of them are freemasons and closet fascists.

12. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160409 by Tycho the Dog on April 14, 2008 at 3:40 am

Ravenhill is a curious sub-species of flea. He trades heavily on the use of Dawkins' name, but fails to engage with anything he has actually written.

The Xtian god has been declining in importance as a source of inspiration for art for at least two centuries. Classical and other mythoplogies have been at least as important in music and art since the mid-eighteenth century. And this is even more so for 'great' literature, where humanism consistently trumps religion.

13. Cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov tries suicide after realising he was wrong about doomsday

Comment #155075 by Tycho the Dog on April 4, 2008 at 6:17 am

What's missing on the ridicule/sympathy debate is sufficient context. If, like many cult leaders, this guy was a predatory exploiter of vulnerable people he deserves all the shit he gets; if he is a deluded victim of his own mental condition he deserves sympathy and care.

14. My quest to get de-baptised

Comment #152441 by Tycho the Dog on March 31, 2008 at 3:04 am

It wouldn't be appropriate to remove anyone from the record of baptisms simply because it's a record of historical fact and you can't alter that. What you should be able to do is add youself to an 'I've left the church' list.

15. The death-of-god debate

Comment #148576 by Tycho the Dog on March 23, 2008 at 10:27 am

Madmaili

"Harries claims to find God in such concepts as beauty and artistic creativity. A sign of His handiwork is humanity's eternal assault on the mountains of the sublime."

16. Two More Fleas

Comment #142978 by Tycho the Dog on March 13, 2008 at 9:39 am

I'm sure clearmind's obvious disingeneousness and evasiveness (and bad analogies) serve the cause of reason and intellectual honesty better than his.

17. Fleas on the Horizon: In Defense of God

Comment #138243 by Tycho the Dog on March 4, 2008 at 5:12 am

Hasn't the idea of translating all the apologist arguments into a list/grid been mooted before? E.g., 'The Dawkins Delusion' uses arguments A, C, F, H, 'Why Faith Matters' uses A, B, D, H, and so on.

A map of apologist counter-arguments across the various flea volumes would make for an interesting resource, and would likely reveal a paucity of originality.

18. Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence

Comment #132767 by Tycho the Dog on February 25, 2008 at 7:35 am

"As a lifelong atheist, I can think of one or two things that would make me believe that there was life after death and/or a deity who answered prayers."

How about if all the dead were brought back to life? With all their former knowledge, and knowledge of an afterlife... But I suppose all that would really prove is that a being or beings unknown had abilities traditionally attributed to gods. As others have commented all that raises is the question of what it means to be a 'god' as opposed to being 'god-like'.

Perhaps that's what the fundamental difference is. Faced with the above an atheist would say -'Cool. Evidence of beings with god-like powers.' While a theist would start praying.

19. Don't blame Islam for terrorism, expert says

Comment #131204 by Tycho the Dog on February 22, 2008 at 3:55 am

Comment #131028 by Electric Monk

"It was Europeans who visited their 'world wars' twice upon the rest of the world -- two devastating global conflicts with no remote parallels in Islamic history."

As far as countering sweeping statements goes, I seem to remember Japan having something to do with WWII

20. New atheists or new anti-dogmatists?

Comment #117041 by Tycho the Dog on January 28, 2008 at 6:25 am

I can see where he's coming from, but I'm not sure what the point of his conclusions are. Yes, organised religions fulfil important social functions for their adherents, but none that could not be provided by secular organisations (certainly in the UK). The one, and huge, difference is that with religion the social functions are always framed by belief in the supernatural.

21. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114438 by Tycho the Dog on January 22, 2008 at 7:58 am

I can see it all clearly: Jesus in tight PVC having the outrageously camp disciples, pharisees, legionaires, etc., pointed out by Mary Magdalene...

"But I'm the only gay in Galilee".

22. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #114419 by Tycho the Dog on January 22, 2008 at 7:18 am

I agree that to offend simply for the sake of giving offence is generally crass (as opposed to offending someone to make a valid point), but the problem here is that extremists choose to view all offenses as being equally - and disproportionately - offensive and react accordingly.

But then I suppose that goes with being an extremist.

23. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113972 by Tycho the Dog on January 21, 2008 at 5:48 am

Surely the point of outraging muslim sensibilities is to 'encourage' them to develop the same sort of tolerance that adherants of other faiths have had to develop over the past few decades in the Europe.

The only difference is that this minority faith has a huge psycopathic brother lurking over the horizon, the thought of which seems to bring out the cowardly streak in many politicians.

We can do little to address extremism outside the West, but that shouldn't paralyse us from doing something about it on our own doorsteps. Dialogue is great, but sometimes it really does need to end with a clear 'f~#k off'.

24. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #111925 by Tycho the Dog on January 16, 2008 at 2:55 am

Silly Mongoose

I'm afraid you're correct. A fish with legs proves creationism is true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coy9DFnGDJg

25. US 'doomed' if creationist president elected: scientists

Comment #109022 by Tycho the Dog on January 8, 2008 at 7:03 am

Re Comment #108759

Don't you guys realise how dangerous the intraweb is? Chances are Annabanana is really a 54 yo male paedophile living in Warrington and is grooming you. And you just invited her/him into your houses.

26. Abstinence Programs Face Rejection

Comment #100623 by Tycho the Dog on December 19, 2007 at 2:22 am

MuNky82 #100562

But god didn't create us like that. It's all a result of the the fall and original sin. Sex is bad - it's a punishment; it's not meant to be natural or enjoyable (except under the strict circumstances of making babies within marriage).

Take god out of the equation and the notion of imposing abstinence on teenagers can be seen for what it is - religiously-inspired bollocks.

27. God rest you merry atheist

Comment #99979 by Tycho the Dog on December 18, 2007 at 2:40 am

So, Richard Dawkins has an abiding affection for some of the cultural practices that he was immersed in as a child - and will even participate in some of them - in spite of the fact that he has rejected the underlying belief systems as nonsensensical.

And there is something remarkable about this?

28. This deadly religious resistance to vaccinations

Comment #96842 by Tycho the Dog on December 11, 2007 at 2:15 am

The Daily Mail, as has often been pointed out in previous threads, is the most poisonously disingenuous newspaper published in the UK - far worse than other 'tabloids' such as the Sun or Mirror. It's worse because it masquerades as serious journalism and is read as such by large swathes of the middle-class population (my own parents included). As such it caters to an eclectic mix of middle-class prejudices - anti-Labour party, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-foreigner, anti-teachers, anti-muslim, anti-science, anti-police, pro-corporal and capital punishment, pro-psuedoscientific woo-woo, and famously, of course, in the inter-war period, pro-Nazi.

29. Is Infant Male Circumcision An Abuse Of The Rights Of The Child?

Comment #96108 by Tycho the Dog on December 10, 2007 at 2:31 am

It's good that the balance of comments here is strongly against circumcision. A similar discussion as Pharyngula some months ago provoked a very large number of comments, and what was disturbing was how many sought to justify male genital mutilation on the grounds of cultural normality - a kind of unthinking 'well I had it done, so I'd get my son done' attitude.

And drawing comparisons to female genital mutilation is entirely irrelevant to this topic - other than that they should both be regarded as totally unacceptable cultural/religious practices.

It's also disturbing that a female medical practitioner should be putting arguments in favour of male circumcision. It smacks of a sexist attitude that condones short-term domestic violence against males (in this case baby boys) as something that'll be good for them in the long run. And if anyone can explain why this isn't an act of violence I be interested to hear.

30. Springer opera court fight fails

Comment #94574 by Tycho the Dog on December 6, 2007 at 2:10 am

ChrisMcL,

I agree and one of the hugely disappointing aspects of ten years of Labour government - with an initially huge electoral mandate - is that they have singularly failed to introduce any meaningful constitutional reforms. Instead they've been busy cosying up to faith groups, big business, and pushing a big brother agenda. This is exactly the sort of law that a supposedly socialist goverment should be repealing.

31. Nurses Told to Turn Muslims' Beds to Mecca

Comment #94193 by Tycho the Dog on December 5, 2007 at 1:48 am

Re Veronique, #94164

The media really ought to be held responsible for this kind of deliberately misleading reporting. It both panders to, and generates prejudice, and is pretty irresponsible, but unfortunately it's an effective way of selling newspapers. I mean, there are enough genuine things going on to get annoyed about without having to distort non-stories into examples of 'policitical correctness gone mad'.

32. Dr Bari: Government stoking Muslim tension

Comment #87438 by Tycho the Dog on November 12, 2007 at 6:07 am

I can't add anything substantive to this discussion other than to ask, what enough is that perched on Dr Bari's head? Is it a dead squirrel? Is that allowed under sharia law?

33. Messiah

Comment #52451 by Tycho the Dog on June 27, 2007 at 4:02 am

Sigmund,

I heard exactly that response on another show. They instucted a guy in cold reading techniques then let him loose as a psychic. The person he gave a reading to was convinced by the reading, and even when the trick was revealed still insisted that the reader must have had latent psychic powers to have picked up on what he did.

This was the same show Randi appeared on as a 'psychic', freaked one of the audience members out with his accuracy, then revealed how he had done it, only to be followed by a 'genuine' psychic who spouted the usual vague hit-or-miss bullshit, with the audience gasping at his 'amazing' powers.

34. Pedal power takes Islamic shape in Iran

Comment #42284 by Tycho the Dog on May 18, 2007 at 2:55 am

Filthy Women! How dare you place the temptation of the recently sat-upon saddle before us.

35. Freethinking Ruins All Things

Comment #42266 by Tycho the Dog on May 18, 2007 at 2:15 am

If someone uses capitalised 'him's' or 'he's' (god is a male for sure), it's a pretty good indicator they're spouting crap.

36. The Dawkins Confusion: Naturalism ad absurdum

Comment #23675 by Tycho the Dog on March 2, 2007 at 3:11 am

What a load of old piffle. I can't believe I wasted part of my morning wading through this. If an undergraduate submitted an essay this poorly reasoned I'd fail it.

37. Do stop behaving as if you are God, Professor Dawkins

Comment #20909 by Tycho the Dog on February 7, 2007 at 2:22 am

Oh no, not another 'atheism is just another form of belief' argument.

Prof McGrath's claims to prior atheism are distinctly reminiscent of C.S Lewis'. Christians just love the idea of an athiest come back into the fold.

It does strike me that Lewis and McGrath are of a type of academic/intellectual with an uncanny ability to persuade themselves through their own weak arguments, and in the face of the evidence -or lack thereof. I think this type of reasoned self-delusion was also present in the Oxbridge intellectuals who continued supporting Soviet Communism, to the extent of betraying their own country, in spite of abundent evidence that Stalin was a murderous monster.

38. Do You Believe in Magic?

Comment #18850 by Tycho the Dog on January 23, 2007 at 8:00 am

I also don't see a significant difference between this type of magical thinking and the average level of sophistication of religious belief. Both work as fear-derived superstition: if I don't pray to god the bad thing will happen; if I don't 'touch-wood' the bad thing will happen.

An interesting post.