1. Pelosi, Reid shunning Ten Commandments?

Comment #182030 by Flavius_Josephus on May 19, 2008 at 6:21 am

One of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, took the position that Christianity was not a part of the common law and should not be.

In an 1814 letter to Thomas Cooper, he quoted from his own earlier work, his Commonplace Book, on this very question.

2. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163259 by Flavius_Josephus on April 18, 2008 at 5:33 am

That had me laughing so hard... that was brilliant!

If only we could get this played everywhere!

3. Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Comment #146536 by Flavius_Josephus on March 19, 2008 at 7:18 am

My father kept his copies of Clarke's books and passed them to me, and I've just started reading "Rescue Party" to my son.

I'm a little blue today thinking about it, but it is nice to pass on Clarke's writings to my kids and hopefully on down the line to their kids.

Arthur C. Clarke will be greatly missed.

4. I don't believe in atheists

Comment #145833 by Flavius_Josephus on March 18, 2008 at 7:47 am

Harris is a neo-con?

Harris is strongly supportive of pre-emptive war?

Harris calls for a first nuclear strike against arabs?

Hedges implied he was a religious man to the author of the article... but Hedges claims to be an atheist according to himself in the Beyond Belief Conferences... which is it? Is he just pandering to whatever audience he speaks to?

Chris Hedges is retreating into using the same types of arguments as creationists and purposely using quotes "out of context". No wonder Harris blasts him so much in the last Beyond Belief series.

I have enjoyed, respected, and learned some things from Hedge's journalism over the years while still disagreeing with on many things, but he has lost my respect with this.

5. Bishop accuses gays of 'conspiracy' against the Catholic Church

Comment #143515 by Flavius_Josephus on March 14, 2008 at 7:16 am

The first response post by Steve8282 says it all:

"The Bishop longs for the days when Homosexuals knew their place, in the Clergy."

That is just awesome.

6. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #143509 by Flavius_Josephus on March 14, 2008 at 7:10 am

Wow.

"The secular view on sex outside marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and Aids, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information."

"So-called" safe sex was based on the "deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against Aids".

The "Church" will be apologizing "again" in 50 or a 100 years or so, for the AIDS genocide they helped spread in Africa due to their misinformation campaigns on condom usage...

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

Comment #121777 by Flavius_Josephus on February 4, 2008 at 6:20 am

Wow, what a beatdown.

I can't believe Simmons actually said there were no whale fossils!

8. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #118840 by Flavius_Josephus on January 31, 2008 at 3:53 am

Happy Birthday Josh!

Please keep up the good work, the impact this site has had is hard to imagine!

CHEERS!

9. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #117553 by Flavius_Josephus on January 29, 2008 at 5:16 am

Hello Everyone!

As the Manager for this book project, let me guide everyone back on track.

First, however, I'll just say that all the feedback and comments in this section are extremely useful, keep them coming and please let any like minded military friends or family members know about our project.

The reason this book is being put together is to give a voice to the many atheists/agnostics/freethinkers in the military to tell their stories. It is said far too often by theists, that, "there are no atheists in foxholes." This book anthology is seeking to put such a notion to rest (at least bring it to public attention) by putting the stories of non-theistic, compassionate, and courageous military members in the public eye. We want the general public to recognize that there are many non-theists in the military, and that being a non-theist does not mean one is a communists either. At least here in the USA, we suffer from the automatic association that atheists are communists… very annoying.

If you have never been in the military and/or don't understand the purpose/use of the military, especially during peacetimes, that's ok, but we aren't looking for your opinions for this particular book. Perhaps it could be a future book however…

We're not looking to make a case that atheists are better than everyone else in the military, we just want to show that there are a large number of such people in the military; people doing a good job in tough situations who don't need magic means to get them through tough times.

We will also consider stories about the negative effects of evangelical Chaplains in the military. Evangelicals in the Chaplain Corps have annoyed and disturbed the regular Chaplains almost as much as us non-theists I think.

If you have read through all the posts in this section, you should get the idea that people are serving for reasons along a very broad spectrum that spans everything from just getting money to college tuition to patriotism, and everything in between… minus supernatural agents; I myself found that most of the people I served with either wanted money for college, or just wanted a chance to get and stay out of the inner-cities or their small town here in the USA.

I can be reached for questions and/or story submissions through the link in the original posting of this topic.

10. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115357 by Flavius_Josephus on January 24, 2008 at 4:58 am

Obviously Campolo hasn't ever taken an introductory class in Physical Anthropology or he would know that science has progressed past antique racist ideas since the 1940's.

Further, he seems oblivious to the fact that the leading defense of slavery and racism has been... the Bible! This was especially true here in the United States.

Funny also that he ties in old ideas of Social Darwinism saying Darwin:

"endorsed an extreme laissez-faire political ideology that legitimizes the neglect of the suffering poor by the ruling elite."

It's funny and ironic, because scientists know ideas about Social Darwinism went extinct long ago.

The only groups really holding on to Socially Darwinistic ideology in modern times are fundamentalist Christian groups... who don't even realize they espouse such views! But just look at the "values" of such groups in regards to social programs and you will see "Social Darwinism" alive and well in the ultra religious.

11. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112781 by Flavius_Josephus on January 18, 2008 at 4:42 am

Geez it is embarrassing to be living in the USA these days. Somebody pinch me and wake me up from this bad dream.

And Cartomancer, you wrote:
"Ironically my own masters degree involved, and my doctorate currently involves, quite a lot of "creation science" literature - such magisterial opera as Thierry of Chartres' Heptateuchon, The Dragmaticon Philosophie and Glosses on Timaeus of William of Conches, and Robert Grosseteste's Hexaemeron. The University of Oxford even considered my masters thesis worthy of distinction too.

Thing is though, I study the intellectual history of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries rather than a science subject... "

This was just too funny and gave me a good laugh. Can I use this quote?

12. New journal to target education in evolution

Comment #109037 by Flavius_Josephus on January 8, 2008 at 7:54 am

With all the talk about Ron Paul, don't forget the even nuttier Huckabee that we have to put up with over here in the USA.

It's embarrasing to have such nutty candidates on the forefront of our presidential elections.

Creationists, anti-vaccine nuts, a possible American Theocracy; seems like the Dark Ages looming on the horizon. I'm getting cynical.

13. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #108612 by Flavius_Josephus on January 7, 2008 at 10:49 am

That was the best debate I've heard thus far... the Rabbi gave it his best shot for sure. But in the end:
1 He resorted to magical "knowing"
and although making a
distiniction between it and
scientific evidence, but puts them on
the same level as validity.

2 He expressed clear misunderstandings
of evolution several times
(i.e. what it is, isn't,
invokes an Intelligent Designer
etc...)

3 He is out of date with modern
neurology (ideas don't come from the
brain, nor morals from evolution he
says??) I doubt he has read any of
Michael Persinger's, or Vilayanur
Ramachandran's works.

14. This deadly religious resistance to vaccinations

Comment #99649 by Flavius_Josephus on December 17, 2007 at 8:46 am

To anyone who is interested, I will be a guest on The Infidel Guy Show on January 03 and will be discussing this exact topic, along with covering the horrors of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million people worldwide.

I've been on the show before debating a couple of anti-vaccine/creationist nuts. However, this time will be more aimed at busting myths surrounding vaccines, and taking aim at, "The Enemies of Reason", as RD puts it.

15. Sam Harris at AAI 07

Comment #95117 by Flavius_Josephus on December 7, 2007 at 11:33 am

Hmm, I didn't find the lecture very controversial at all? People made it sound like he was saying some really radical things... I think not. Just seemed like he sought, successfully, to present an idea for discussion. I think it worked whether or not his ideas take hold or not.

16. Mitt Romney's Faith In America address (as prepared for delivery)

Comment #94966 by Flavius_Josephus on December 7, 2007 at 4:29 am

Thank you CJ22, because we are screwed.

17. Hello Again, Michael Behe!

Comment #86587 by Flavius_Josephus on November 9, 2007 at 4:52 pm

Behe wasn't just shown to be dead wrong, as usual, but what was great is that ERV, as Calilasseia mentioned in an above post, gave Behe a much deserved bitch slapping.

If one reads all of their interactions (see ERV's first post to Behe), Behe deserved every ounce of it!

Yes, ERV, you rock! Job well done.

It's also funny to note that it took Behe almost 2 months to post his pitiful repsonse to ERV the first time around. I think he is getting cold feet?

18. Richard Dawkins Replies to David Sloan Wilson

Comment #55722 by Flavius_Josephus on July 12, 2007 at 4:29 am

I must say, that after reading RD's response and then all of the post thus far, that RD was quite polite in his response. Wilson completely missed the whole point. RD doesn't say religion doesn't exist; he doesn't say it contradicts evolutionary theory or that religion shouldn't have evolved or that it wasn't important to our ancestors; why would he if it isn't the point of the book? The crux of RD's book is that while it is true that the existence of the supernatural (or God if you like) can't be disproved, it can be put on the same level as fairies, Santa Claus, etc...

I thought RD was quite generous not to go into detail on some of the fallacies of group selection, I'm quite sure it could have been embarrassing for Wilson.

It must be painful for RD to keep responding to critics who completely miss the whole point of his book and probably only read one or two chapters out of it.

19. Benny Hinn Faith Healing Scam - Burton and Tinkler

Comment #21844 by Flavius_Josephus on February 11, 2007 at 7:43 am

Hello Everyone!

I'm Brandon Burton, who along with Greg Tinkler were the ones who did this investigation about which we are posting. I must say that I'm not surprised to see Benny still around and going strong. And to comment on the statement by L.Minnik, I think they know exactly what they are doing. Most of them have previous criminal records as thieves, and con artists. Pick out 4 televangelists, and search their backgrounds... you will find all kinds of scary stuff. I'm planning a new investigation here in Illinois, where we have a "faith healer" who was in the news not too long ago. I'll let The Infidel Guy know about this upcoming investigation as well. This time, we have micro cameras and mics... fun stuff!!

20. James Randi on Larry King Live

Comment #20533 by Flavius_Josephus on February 3, 2007 at 9:31 pm

HEY, ALL THE PSYCHICS HAVE TO DO IS BREAK THE BELL CURVE WITH THEIR ANSWERS TO PROVE THEY KNOW ANYTHING ABOVE "Chance". But it doesn't happen, period.

21. Benny Hinn examined

Comment #19939 by Flavius_Josephus on January 30, 2007 at 6:35 pm

Here is the link to the Infidel Guy Show regarding Benny Hinn, along with a brief description. You can podcast or download the mp3.

http://infidelguy.libsyn.com/

Faith Healing Scam - Burton and Tinkler
On Good Friday (the 13th ), Brandon and Greg went to Charlotte NC to see the faith healer Benny Hinn. "You will hear not only how Benny pulls the wool over the sheeps' eyes, but also get a glimpse into the mind of the believer. It isn't pretty, but hopefully we can convince the listeners that these poor souls are not to be despised simply because they are theists."

ENJOY

22. Benny Hinn examined

Comment #19881 by Flavius_Josephus on January 30, 2007 at 12:59 pm

I few years ago, a friend and I worked at one of Benny Hinns Miracle Crusades, seeking to see inside the scam. I was a center stage usher (money collector). We were then interviewed on the internet talk show, The Infidel Guy. If anyone is interested, they are putting it back up on todays podcast. I'll post a direct link for it in a few hours, but his main site is www.infidelguy.com