1. Manitoba dig uncovers 80-million-year-old sea creature

Comment #239121 by Steever on August 29, 2008 at 5:24 am

bluebird,

Thanks for the link to that museum in Morden. I wasn't even aware of its existence! I'm going to check that out soon (I live in nearby Winnipeg). It'll make a nice day trip for the family ...

Later,
Steever

2. Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural

Comment #116288 by Steever on January 26, 2008 at 7:04 am

I am happy because I believe in DOG. I am a DOGmatic CATholic.

heehee

(Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

3. A War On Science

Comment #105418 by Steever on December 31, 2007 at 1:43 pm

For an in depth analysis of the Dover trial, make sure to check out the book "Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul" by Edward Humes. In the interest of "fairness" Humes allows both sides to make their points, but it's abundantly clear that Humes is on Evolution's side; he provides many apt examples and summaries of the evidence in Evolution's favour. The book exposes the IDers/Creationists for the sneaky, underhanded intellectual frauds that rational people know that they are.

http://tinyurl.com/2pr6gh

4. The joining of church and state

Comment #88641 by Steever on November 18, 2007 at 7:57 am

Comment #88539 by stevieb

nice article- maybe dershowitz should write a book about the declaration of independence... then journalists could mention that when quoting him...

He has ... I saw it at the library the other day. Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/37b7kl

5. Georgia plans service to pray for rain

Comment #86659 by Steever on November 9, 2007 at 10:03 pm

"The only solution is rain, and the only place we get that is from a higher power," Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said on Wednesday.

Check this out: http://science.howstuffworks.com/cloud-seeding.htm

Dunno how effective "cloud seeding" is, but regardless, it appears that Chinese scientists disagree with Brantley's assertion that praying to an imaginary sky-father is the only way to encourage rainfall. At least the Chinese are tackling the problem head on, rather than mindlessly beseeching their imaginary friend to fix everything for them.

6. Baby's 'miracle' recovery in British hospital to give Malta its first saint

Comment #44580 by Steever on May 25, 2007 at 5:02 am

Speaking of miraculous events that defy explanation ...

It's been raining here in Winnipeg all week, and I've been itching to de-dandelion my yard, cut the grass, then lay down some fertilizer. Last Sunday, I thought, "Friday would be an excellent day to do some yard work, because I have the day off. I hope it's not raining that day!"

Well, check out today's weather forecast: Sunny with cloudy periods!!!

http://winnipegweather.com/

The ONLY possible cause of this miracle is my listening to Mercyful Fate's 1984 album "Don't Break the Oath" before going to sleep last night. It's straightforward cause and effect. What makes this even MORE miraculous is that Mercyful Fate's lyrical content is often dark and full of Satanic imagery. What a miracle!!

Do I have to contact the Vatican about this miracle or will they seek me out? Do they have "miracle seeking radar technology" or something like that?

I hope the band members of Mercyful fate will be pleased by their impending canonization.

In any event, time to go de-weed the lawn.

Praise Mercyful Fate!!

Steever
Winnipeg, Canada

7. Kirk Cameron Proves That God Exists

Comment #40187 by Steever on May 13, 2007 at 4:38 pm

The vacant, powerless looks on Kirk & Rays' faces after they were asked to respond to Brian's Thermodynamics argument were PRICELESS. Their silence was deafening. I also got a big kick out of Kirk's weakly mumbled comment after Ray, having no comment of his own, asked if HE had anything to say (I'm paraphrasing so it's not verbatim): "No. I think people can figure it out for themselves."

Wow, eh? He can't just say "no" or "I'll have to think about it", etc. He has to make it sound like a suitable response DOES exist (which, admittedly, for all I know, not knowing much about physics, it does). What a great way to answer a question when you don't have a clue what the answer is! I wish I'd used this approach in high-school:

"No, I have nothing to say, Mr. Teacher. I think you and my fellow classmates can figure it out for yourselves."

Somehow, I doubt I'd get away with that for very long. ;-)

Steever,
Winnipeg, Canada

8. Richard Dawkins on Canada AM

Comment #38460 by Steever on May 8, 2007 at 7:16 am

Yeah, the George Stroumboulopoulos interview on "The Hour" was better than I thought it would be. But I found it difficult to reconcile George's friendly chat with Dawkins with his equally amiable conversation with Deepak Chopra when he was a guest on the show promoting his new book a few months ago. Or does George act like he's in full agreement with ALL his guests? I'm sure a religious type would say he was overly obsequious with Dawkins, too. I dunno. I rarely watch the show. It just seems like he completely let Chopra off the hook; but again, maybe he does that with all his guests.

Here's a link to the aforementioned Chopra interview:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1147

Australia's Royal Society of Skeptics? Bah! How utterly absurd that such a group exists! George seemingly thinks so, too. Also, Chopra labels Dawkins "arrogant" and that "his brand of atheism went out of fashion 200 years ago". According to Chopra, we should believe in some vague kind of supreme non-local quantum consciousness, whatever the hell that is. :-)

Chopra has a book called "Golf For Enlightenment"?!! Wow. He's an expert in so many different areas of life! When he says the word "consciousness" over and over again he sounds so wise! When he says "non-local" he sounds so scientific! Blah, blah, blah ...

Anyway, TTYLater,
Steever
Winnipeg, Canada

9. Bill Maher - APATHEIST

Comment #35455 by Steever on April 27, 2007 at 8:07 am

A minute or two ago, without giving any thought to reading the entire list of candidates, I cast my vote for RD on Time's Most Influential People of the Year poll.

Then, I saw Sidney Crosby's name on the list just a few notches above RD. Oooooo! He's my favourite hockey player! I gave him a 100% rating, too.

Hooray! I love popularity contests! hehe :-) Stephen Colbert is in 1st place at the moment.

Steever,
Winnipeg, Canada

10. 'The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools' & Rebuttal

Comment #34464 by Steever on April 24, 2007 at 6:38 am

I know it's a trivial error and we Canucks shouldn't be harping on it (!!), but the misplacement of Taber, Alberta in the first video is inexcusable, particularly in this day and age with all the knowledge and information we have at our fingertips. For instance, to ascertain Taber's general location, I went to Google, clicked on Images, keyed in "Taber Alberta", and the first image that came up was the following:

http://tinyurl.com/32lsh5

As you can see, it's clear that Taber is a LOT closer to the Pacific Ocean and a LOT farther away from the Great Lakes than the first video claims.

Or they could've gone to Google Maps, keyed in "Taber Alberta", zoomed out a bit and voila! Clearly, Taber is not directly north of North Dakota!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Trivial! But it does illustrate their disregard for proper research. If they can get something like this so radically wrong, what else are they completely misrepresenting?

Looking at where they placed Taber, it almost seems like they were simply too lazy or indifferent to consult an atlas, and thus just picked a random spot in the middle of the country. ;-)

OK, nitpicking session is over. hehe

Later,
Steever

11. The God Debate

Comment #29235 by Steever on April 2, 2007 at 7:04 am

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Robert M. Price released a book last year called The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For? In it, he provides a chapter by chapter critique of the ideas contained in Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. It's an interesting read, and it provides further evidence (as if any was required!) that Rick Warren lives in a wondrous and magical world of delusion. :-)

Check it out:
http://tinyurl.com/2969su

12. 12 Year Old Girl Prodigy Paints Pictures of God

Comment #18827 by Steever on January 23, 2007 at 4:51 am

Is that Billy Ray Cyrus in the painting entitled "Father Forgive Them" (the one shown in the graphic on the Dawkins site)? I ask this with tongue firmly in cheek ... HOWEVER at the same time, check out the similarity:

http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/movie/doc/45.jpg

Coincidence? hehe