1. Philippe Starck: Why design?

Comment #182400 by eirik on May 20, 2008 at 12:33 am

re: mordacious1

I see your point, but I enjoyed the talk (or at least parts of it). Starck had some interesting takes on life and how we should live it. I especially liked his angle of view metaphor, and his impression of the "final man". Well worth the tip, RD.net!

2. 3QD interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #178789 by eirik on May 12, 2008 at 3:57 am

what an interesting and refreshing interview. i've grown so tired of the same old, same old interviews where the good doctor has to repeat the same answers for the umpteenth time for why there almost certainly is no god. do more of these, richard! kudos to the interviewer, as well. i think i'll check in on his blog regularly from now on.

3. Science Debate 2008

Comment #161337 by eirik on April 15, 2008 at 7:22 am

The supernational and the assortment of imaginary friends have always been pounding on the gates of reason.

4. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111374 by eirik on January 14, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Dear sir,

Congratulations on finally receiving your Croix de Guerre, and kudos to you for spending much of your time and hard-earned money on the cause for reason and science. I wish you all the best with your upcoming surgery and all future endeavours!

Sincerely,

Eirik Paulsen

5. Hook, line and rapture

Comment #109135 by eirik on January 8, 2008 at 12:23 pm

"this is a dream you prick!" hilarious!!

6. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107445 by eirik on January 4, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Really good debate. I think Sam is our best shot at reasoning faith-heads out of their believes. Hitch is an absolutely brilliant man and debater, but rude to the extent that some people are almost repulsed. Richard is also extremely smart and a great "science popularist", but too dry for a lot of laymen's taste. Sam always remains eloquent and calm, and still gets his messages across perfectly. His leaning towards the spiritual I think is also of advantage insofar as it resonates with a lot of religious people. He makes a good argument for how superstition isn't inherently a requisite part of non-materialistic well-being.

7. The Four Horsemen: on Christmas

Comment #100026 by eirik on December 18, 2007 at 5:15 am

It would be great if you started offering your own videos in HD. And as already mentioned, by using BitTorrent bandwith won't be an issue. Yes to HD and Torrents!

8. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #98980 by eirik on December 15, 2007 at 5:07 am

Ah. I think I've just lived through the most intellectually satisfying two hours of my life. Never have I seen such deep, profound subjects discussed with such concise, razor sharp eloquence. Amazing.

Thanks a lot to the starring quartet, and especially to you, Richard (I'm not sure I'm comfortable addressing you by your first name, but you always sign your posts with just that, so from now on I will). Also a big thank you to Josh for your job with this site making videos like this one available to Joes like us. You are doing an incredible job.

9. Jumbo shrimp, creationist astronomy

Comment #98714 by eirik on December 14, 2007 at 5:39 am

To all of you out there who don't like QuickTime: Richard Dawkins is, and has been for as long as I've seen him use computers, an Apple fan boy, and I'm guessing Josh Timonen that runs this site is too. So we're stuck with QT. No getting around it.

10. Sherri Shepherd needs to go away now

Comment #94735 by eirik on December 6, 2007 at 11:27 am

Oh my. Alright, I see that this Sherri lady might be good for ratings, but I'm immensely disappointed in her co-hostesses for not giving her a solid verbal beating. Whoopi: "Not on paper!" WTF?!?

11. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #88479 by eirik on November 17, 2007 at 2:03 am

great program, and something that a lot of people need to watch.

ftao arcturus: when did religion ever make sense? assumptions and conclusions based on religious doctrine can by definition never make rational sense imho.

12. In honour of Dan Dennett

Comment #76887 by eirik on October 7, 2007 at 3:31 pm

9. Comment #76775 by Crazymalc on October 7, 2007 at 8:04 am

When I read the topic of this post I thought that is was going to be a In Memoriam.

13. We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Comment #76340 by eirik on October 5, 2007 at 2:59 pm

Great!! Thanks! Don't know what we poor non-believing folks would do without you. ;)

14. We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Comment #76264 by eirik on October 5, 2007 at 9:21 am

Quoted from the AAI website:

You may also purchase DVDs of all or part of the convention though the AAI website in October. The cost will be $25 for your choice of day/event or $75 for the entire disk set (plus postage).

15. We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Comment #76259 by eirik on October 5, 2007 at 9:08 am

briancoughlanworldcitizen,

hear, hear!

16. Norway flourishes as secular nation

Comment #76234 by eirik on October 5, 2007 at 7:02 am

To put things in perspective, I think it is sort of important to remind that Norway had a Christian Democrat (a pastor no less) as Prime Minister for two non-consecutive terms well into this millenium. That said, political practice in Norway makes it taboo to bring up one's religious beliefs or (deities in general) unless it relates directly to the issue at hand. Religion is by most, religious or otherwise, considered to have no relevance in the public sphere. And thank God for that.

17. The Fleas Are Multiplying!

Comment #68630 by eirik on September 8, 2007 at 12:56 am

i can't help but to be somewhat amused by thinking about how some of the most prominent authors mentioned above have been so utterly crushed in debate by one or more of the people they are arguing against. the sad thing is that their books will probably sell pretty well and make them each a considerable amount of money...which will in turn encourage them (and make them financially able) to spread their mental viruses to even more gullible religious prospects.

18. God Hates the World

Comment #51936 by eirik on June 25, 2007 at 3:14 pm

Steve99,

In TGD, in the chapter on child abuse ("Childhood, abuse and religion"), Dr. Dawkins refers to how parents should bring up their children teaching them how to think and not what to think (p. 327). Is this really not an implication that all religious indoctrination of children is abuse? I think so, and I totally agree with that sentiment. But this is not, as I'm sure you have understood, the point of my comments on this video post. Instead of arguing about the detailed technicalities of what Dr. Dawkins really means is the connection between child abuse and religious teaching, let's discuss the WBC and the video clip. In future replies, please address the main points in my comments. Thanks.

19. God Hates the World

Comment #51914 by eirik on June 25, 2007 at 2:36 pm

steve99,

Point taken. However, Dr. Dawkins has on several occasions gone far in implying that all religious teaching is, to a greater or lesser extent, child abuse in that it teaches children that irrational belief is a virtue. As others here have remarked, the vast, vast majority of people, religious or not, would agree that WBC is an appalling organization and that its indoctrination of children is disgusting. Dr. Dawkins has often used Steven Weinberg's famous quote about how it takes religion for good people to do evil; these loonies are evil people doing evil, and I think their religiosity is somewhat beside the point.

20. God Hates the World

Comment #51901 by eirik on June 25, 2007 at 2:10 pm

To some extent, I have to say that I agree with David Robertson. To post this video and use it as proof that religious teaching is child abuse is pretty cheap. When reading TGD about religious labelling and child abuse, I didn't really think this video would be representative of and a statement in favor of that point. The people in this video are crazy and would be just as crazy sans any religious influence.

Having said that, the things these lunatics stand for, e.g. hatred of gays (and the world in general it seems), can easily be justified by referring to passages of the Bible, and the mere posting of the video here is therefore I think completely defendable. It's Dr. Dawkins's comment about it that I cannot wholly adhere to.

21. The Atheism FAQ with Richard Dawkins

Comment #46999 by eirik on June 2, 2007 at 4:09 pm

I agree with both TeapotTheist and AdrianB. These "replies" are not at all put in the elegant form that Dawkins himself would have (and so many times already have) pronounced them. Why doesn't just Dawkins himself post a sort of concentrated FAQ himself as opposed to others posting semi-quotes like these?

22. Hitchens and Prager Debate

Comment #46082 by eirik on May 30, 2007 at 6:44 am

jonnec,

excellent point. with smartness and wit like that, you should start writing or debating professionally yourself! :)

23. Christopher Hitchens at Politics and Prose

Comment #45918 by eirik on May 29, 2007 at 3:45 pm

13. Comment #45911 by BT Murtagh on May 29, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Seeing speakers like Hitchens take questions provides a much needed reminder that it is a rare thing to treasure, this sublime ability to get to the fricking point already (or at least to make the journey there interesting).

24. Some US Muslims say suicide attacks OK

Comment #43946 by eirik on May 23, 2007 at 4:38 am

these data are what harris et al. should refer to whenever some religious apologist claims that they are using straw-men tactics. religion is poisonous. end of story.

25. Goodness without Godliness

Comment #43154 by eirik on May 20, 2007 at 2:46 pm

The larger issue seems to be that many believers perceive the mere questioning of faith as inherently hostile, an attack on what they hold to be most sacred -- and thus out of bounds.

26. State Darwin museum

Comment #41122 by eirik on May 15, 2007 at 2:12 pm

Thats what you get for rejecting communism, you silly capitalists.

27. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41118 by eirik on May 15, 2007 at 2:10 pm

people..the man's dead. give it a rest. what good could ever come from making blatant, disrespectful remarks about him now? the quotes that some of you have posted easily speak for themselves. so let them.

28. Hitchens vs. Hannity on Religion and God

Comment #40911 by eirik on May 15, 2007 at 7:42 am

every single time dawkins, harris, hitchens or the like try to argue rationally against the existence of a supernatural, omniscient, omnipotent god, their counterparts immediately revert to the god of the gaps, namely that something must have set the thing in motion. the god of the gaps is not the god that the overwhelming majority of religious people (including hannity) read about and worship. yuck. hearing pro-god arguments like hannity's make me sick.

29. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #40606 by eirik on May 14, 2007 at 3:19 pm

"Christians do not make their case simply on the idea that, "God says condoms are evil." Rather the long view of God shows that He created us, and in doing so gave us guidance on the absolute best way to go about life."

And God shows that how? Ah, yes that's right: In his fairy-tale called Genesis. Come on people! What more evidence do you want? Congrats, Mr. McCullough. You just made me a devout Christian. Um..wait. Something's not making sense here..

30. The Golden Rule

Comment #40567 by eirik on May 14, 2007 at 1:44 pm

beautiful.

31. World's most prominent atheist takes on the Biblical God (and other topics)

Comment #39343 by eirik on May 10, 2007 at 11:12 am

haha..man. for the first few minutes i sincerely thought it was a satire of some sort, but as the show went on (and it became obvious that these loonies weren't joking) i realized it wasn't. i watched the entire clip, though. when that jack guy starts crying after the hideous singing..haha..priceless!

32. Sam Harris in conversation with Oliver McTernan

Comment #38884 by eirik on May 9, 2007 at 11:49 am

IQHQ,

Point taken. The things is though, that without a shared belief in a supreme being, the moderates (sane) and the fundamentalists (insane) would have nothing in common, and the insane could then be distinctively marginalized. All over the world now, a lot of so-called moderate muslims aren't speaking up against jihadism the way they should be doing, because, after all, the jihadists are at war on the side of a god and prophet in whom both the sane and insane alike have a strong faith.

33. Sam Harris in conversation with Oliver McTernan

Comment #38872 by eirik on May 9, 2007 at 11:19 am

and i'm not assuming you are a moderate believer, by the way. i mean "you" as in "one".

34. Sam Harris in conversation with Oliver McTernan

Comment #38871 by eirik on May 9, 2007 at 11:18 am

IQHQ,

How do you, as a moderate believer, argue against fundamentalist, literal interpretations of a holy book? "No, you can't read the book for yourself and draw your own conclusions based on what you read; instead listen here to my wishy-washy interpretation of it. I leave out the bad parts, and focus on the good ones." That is a non-argument, and though probably all religious moderates oppose acting on the literal word of the Bible, the Qur'an or whatever other holy book if such acting is morally undesirable, how do they argue credibly against it?

35. Scene Caused by Christian Group at NYC Stage Show

Comment #35853 by eirik on April 29, 2007 at 4:27 am

the the very idea of the protest was stupid; the form of the protest was, mildly put, childish and disrespectful; daisy's response (directly after it happened, trying to initiate a constructuve dialog with the people leaving, and in posting the video and text on the internet) was and is nothing less than highly admirable. this incident should be widely publicized, and daisy's response letter deserves popular recognition. that group of people thought they were taking a stand against daisy's show, but managed nothing more than embarrassing themselves. someone need to tell them that, because i don't think they are actually capable of coming to that realization themselves.