1. Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

Comment #168459 by JesperB on April 25, 2008 at 6:52 am

Hm, thats rather old news. The near-extinction event has been linked to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory
10 years ago.

Interesting stuff, none the less.

2. Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson

Comment #122800 by JesperB on February 6, 2008 at 5:32 am

mlon: Download Real Alternative here:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

And go to the alternate link (at the top of this page) and click "Video".

The quality is somewhat better too that way.

3. Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Comment #118903 by JesperB on January 31, 2008 at 6:36 am

Gymnopedie: You are right, of course. For "Learn" read "pull out of ass".

4. Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Comment #118297 by JesperB on January 30, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Electrodes in the brain is a fairly crude method to alleviate Parkinson's (despite the glowing praise in this article). I still believe, that Biotech will yield better results with less side-effects, although something is of course better than nothing. Still, fascinating stuff...

annabanana: Nah, they'll just use it to learn more theology. Lets give it to real scientists.

5. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116710 by JesperB on January 27, 2008 at 8:01 am

Paula: Aaaw... Alright, he is an idiot.

Now, pass me the wine.

6. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116433 by JesperB on January 26, 2008 at 1:23 pm

Ouch, the Prof wiped the floor with that guy in 95 secs. Well done!

BTW, John isn't necessarily an idiot. The sad Truth (tm) is, that he might be an idiot or he might be a genius. Susceptibility to delusions isn't always dependent upon IQ.

7. Launch of 'Atheists in Foxholes' Book Anthology

Comment #116087 by JesperB on January 25, 2008 at 1:22 pm

There is no such thing as a military mind.

I think the target of scorn here should be nationalism.

I'm with Aaron on this one: I didn't join the (in my case danish) military because I thought our flag looks good. I joined because democracy and freedom of expression are privileges worth fighting for.

Had my country had the same name, the same flag and the same population, but not a democratic constitution, I wouldn't have joined, even if 100 big-titted blonde chicks had offered me sexual favors for doing so.

And back to the subject- I'm looking forward to reading the anthology...;)

8. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #82433 by JesperB on October 26, 2007 at 10:24 am

1 cent:

Theist: "(Insert appropriate nonsense, Hitler, Stalin, blabla)"

Atheist: "Using your logic of non-belief as a reason for committing atrocities, non-belief in Santa Claus should be our chief concern. Neither Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, The Crusaders nor The Inquisition believed in him and look how many people they killed".

Edit:Typo fixed

9. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #82427 by JesperB on October 26, 2007 at 10:10 am

Or a shorter one (Say, 2 cents?):

Theist: "Mao and Stalin murdered millions and they were atheists! Clearly Atheism is worse than religion!"*

Atheist: "Well, I guess Stalin killed all those people because he didn't believe in Yahwe in the same way that Hitler killed people because he didn't believe in Allah or Crusaders killed people because Crusaders didn't believe in Vishnu".

10. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #82422 by JesperB on October 26, 2007 at 9:55 am

I believe we are supposed to present talking points of sorts or at least rather easily digested pieces of conversation. My 5 cents:

Theist: "Hitler and Stalin murdered millions and they were atheists! Clearly Atheism is worse than religion!"*

Atheist: "Actually Hitler was a Roman Catholic all his life and on good terms with the Vatican. He mentioned God (or the Creator) numerous times, both in speeches and in his book "Mein Kampf". Yet, I would never place the responsibility of Hitlers atrocities with the Roman Catholic Church. Hitler didn't kill millions of people because he was a champion of God. He clearly committed his crimes because of his ideology of National Socialism, his hypothesis of racial inequality and his lust for power.

Stalin, on the other hand, was indeed an Atheist. However, blaming his Atheism for his crimes is downright silly when there is such an obvious other candidate present, namely his ideology of Totalitarian Communism. Stalin didn't kill millions because he didn't believe in God or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy, but because he was a Totalitarian Communist Dictator, who wanted to hold on to the power he had gained.

The idea that Totalitarianism is blameless in these cases and that religious belief, or lack thereof, is the culprit is ignorant at best and willfully dishonest at worst."



*If the Theist has actually read a history book and is not including Hitler, but perhaps Mao or Pol Pot, the argument is still sound.

11. Arguments Against Evolution

Comment #82402 by JesperB on October 26, 2007 at 8:27 am

I would think it obvious, that we are designed. Just look at the perfect human being in all its glory. Clearly we are perfectly made.

Why do we get sick? Well, because God also designed the bacteria, meaning it is perfect as well.

It follows completely logical from this, that the designer of all this perfection decided to create a half-man/half-God (or "Mod") 2000 years ago on the outskirts of the Roman Empire and had this person tortured to death on the favorite roman torture device de jour - so that you and I can be free of the terrible guilt caused by a woman who, thousands of years before that, ate an apple after having had a conversation with a talking snake.

Seriously people - what is it you don't get?

12. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43541 by JesperB on May 22, 2007 at 12:52 am

twblalock, see Comment #43516 to answer your question.

13. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43540 by JesperB on May 22, 2007 at 12:51 am

Great clip. Hitchens, as MrEmpirical said, has great timing at these events.

As for Hannity, he has plenty of reasons to act like a douche. I don't believe for a second that he believes most of what he says or advocates. He is as big a fraud as Fallwell was. But Hannity makes $100000 per night as a speaker.

Nope, not a typo. George H.W. Bush, who has been head of the CIA and of course vice president and president gets $80000 (You may, as I do, disagree with his politics, but he certainly has lots of interesting stories to tell).

Hannity, who has no other background than hosting radio and TV news (I'm using the word news in it's broadest possible sense, so it can include Faux) gets more - 100K for an hour or so of hot air and conservative talking points. Add whatever FN pays him and you have a very wealthy man. No wonder he spouts this nonsense. It has made him rich.

14. Jerry Falwell's Hit Parade

Comment #42277 by JesperB on May 18, 2007 at 2:36 am

Just to set the record straight, V, Fallwell didn't cheat on his wife - mind_rebel got his televangelists mixed up.

Jimmy Swaggart did. Jim Bakker did. Ted Haggart did (and with a dude - whilst high on crystal meth.). Mind_rebel must have thought of one of them - probably Swaggart, since he made a teary-eyed confession on TV afterwards.

He didn't steal from his church either. Jim Bakker again. Nor did he cheat money out of his "flock" (what an appropriate name). Oral Roberts that one (by claiming that god would kill him unless his viewers donated $8 million to him).

Jerry did, however, get a lot of money from the true believers. It just can't be called stealing when they volunteered to hand the cash over.

Nope, Jerry was squarely in the realm of spewing forth hatred. Telling the world that gays are evil? Sure. Blaming "abortionists" for 9/11. Absolutely. Trying to get rid of the 1st amendment? Yup. But cheating on the wife? Perish the thought.

15. Kadra attacked in public

Comment #32187 by JesperB on April 16, 2007 at 5:48 am

This is another example of the fantasy that Islam is a religion of peace, hijacked by a few extremists.

It that were true, hundreds of thousands of "real" Muslims would now be crowding the streets of Oslo (and Copenhagen and Stockholm etc.) protesting against these thugs.

After all, an event like this, if it was indeed against Islam, would be a much bigger insult to the "true believers" than, say, 12 cartoons in an obscure danish newspaper.

Millions of people in the street over drawings - no noteworthy reaction over a case of clear-cut hate violence. Tells it all, really.

16. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #28373 by JesperB on March 29, 2007 at 2:36 am

#119 (Veronique)

Heh, ol' Ken has been twisting the minds of children since 1994. He's old hat, I suspect most visitors to a site such as this one have heard of the infamous mr Ham.

And yep, Dr Dino (Hovind) is doing ten years of hard time for tax fraud. Apparently he thought, that if he called all his employees "missionaries" he wouldn't need to pay any taxes. Insane as the american system is (I'm referring to the tax-exempt status of religious institutions), this was apparently a bit to much, even for them.

17. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #27854 by JesperB on March 27, 2007 at 4:03 am

Yep, Poe's Law seems to apply quite nicely to Chuck. And no, it's for real. See

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Evolution+vs+Creation&search=Search

They've actually spent a lot of ressources on this drivel.

And always nice to see Ray Comfort and his banana-show. Try that trick with a star fruit or a coconut, Ray. I'd love to watch that.

18. Is America Too Damn Religious?

Comment #22679 by JesperB on February 20, 2007 at 3:42 pm

Hmmm, Jean Bethke Elshtain (JBE) seems to think that Eichmanns refusal to place his hand on the bible indicated that he was not religious "And he belonged to the Nazi inner circle".

Actually, the court transcripts reads (Emphasis mine):
___
Presiding Judge:

Decision No. 84

By virtue of Section 5 of the Courts (Offences Punishable by Death) Law, 5721-1961, I hereby order that, in order to reinsure the personal security of the Accused, he will testify from the accused's box.

[To the Accused] Put your right hand on the New Testament.

Accused: I do not swear by the Bible. I swear by God, for I am not bound by any confessional creed, but I do believe in God.

Presiding Judge: We shall permit you to take the oath in the form which you consider binding upon you. Therefore say: "I swear by God that my evidence in this trial will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

Accused: I swear by God that my evidence in this trial will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

(http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-075-05.html)
___


Did she forget the rest of that exchange? Bottom line: Eichmann was religious and JBE is guilty of lying by omission.


But my favorite part of her speech was without a doubt the statement, that: "If you think we're too damn religious, you're likely to think we're too damn pluralistic". Can someone say Strawman?

Pathetic...