1. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199376 by sornord on June 25, 2008 at 3:55 pm

That is about the most revolting thing I have ever seen in my life...and we are supposed to "respect" the Muslim culture because it "saved classical knowledge" some 1700-odd years ago? What have they done for us lately!!??

Fu**ing bloody primitives! Absolutely disgusting!

2. Scientists confirm that parts of earliest genetic material may have come from the stars

Comment #193309 by sornord on June 15, 2008 at 8:47 am

Carl Sagan said on COSMOS 28 years ago, "We are all made of 'star stuff,'" referring to the fact that all heavier elements are forged in and by stars.

Chemistry works the same everywhere.

3. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #186757 by sornord on May 31, 2008 at 9:10 am

The relevant issue is the lie. I read of a couple, who were not religious, whose marriage fell apart after the wife revealed to her husband she had slept with about 50 men before him, when previously she had only claimed six. It destroyed his trust in her.

I know finding out something like that from my wife would be a dagger to the heart too...something hard to get over.

4. Sean Carroll on the Today Program

Comment #154264 by sornord on April 3, 2008 at 2:26 am

The Florida education system is also under a similar attack as Louisiana's, using the same "educational freedom" argument I hear is the latest tactic from the Discovery Institute.

SW

5. Beware the Believers

Comment #151652 by sornord on March 29, 2008 at 6:18 am

The RD South Park episode wasn't that good but this one is hilarious. Wonder what the Sam, Eugenie and the others think...

6. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150334 by sornord on March 26, 2008 at 6:02 pm

Happy Birthday, Dr. Dawkins...listened to your appearance a few weeks ago on the Alan Colmes radio show, where you announced you're retiring this year and in retirement will write more books. I wait with anticipation for them.

Stephen Wilson

7. Full house captivated by atheist Dawkins' take on religion

Comment #142708 by sornord on March 13, 2008 at 3:25 am

I do hope security wherever Richard appears is VERY tight. There are a lot of fundie nutjobs in the US who think he is evil incarnate and might want to take a shot at him.

8. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #138150 by sornord on March 4, 2008 at 2:03 am

Too bad he's not going to Florida. There's another ID bruhaha in the Board of Education going on down there. Some state senators in Tallahassee are putting out the "it's just a theory" babble on evolution.

Sometimes I think Homer Simpson is right: Florida is America's wang.

SW

9. Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

Comment #135454 by sornord on February 29, 2008 at 1:57 am

Let's hope the Islamo-fundies don't start hunting down reformers in Turkey...

10. Whale Evolution

Comment #130984 by sornord on February 21, 2008 at 4:15 pm

That clip is from a 7-part PBS series entitled, naturally, "Evolution". Good series I have watched multiple times, though I bought it on VHS before DVDs were, uh, intelligently designed.

11. U.S.: 'Demonic' militants sent women to bomb markets in Iraq

Comment #120611 by sornord on February 2, 2008 at 5:55 am

And where are the Muslim voices of protest? Or is the all the fault of the Zionist Entity? The Infidel Crusaders? The Great Satan? or any of the other BS labels

Reminds me of the 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami: a disaster impacting large numbers of Muslims and only a pittance of aid from the Muslim world, which includes some of the richest treasuries on the planet.

Just pathetic!

12. Pope says some science shatters human dignity

Comment #120600 by sornord on February 2, 2008 at 5:15 am

I would find it hard to be dignified in that goofy get-up Herr Ratzinger and his predecessors wear. What's with those crazy hats anyway?

13. The New Theology

Comment #113616 by sornord on January 20, 2008 at 7:25 am

All those hoops to jump through to rationalize God?

The pieces fall together nicely if one goes on the premise there is no God in the first place...

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

Comment #111650 by sornord on January 15, 2008 at 10:06 am

Wow! I'm sure there are many of us frequenting this site that wish we had the wherewithal to live our lives as you have...

Best wishes for speedy recovery and return to the fray...

Stephen Wilson
Florida, USA

15. Let us kill all the teddy bears

Comment #94904 by sornord on December 7, 2007 at 1:38 am

I dropped a healthy sh*te once and proclaimed, "Oh...my god!" so naming your dog Allah seems perfectly acceptable too.

16. Nurses Told to Turn Muslims' Beds to Mecca

Comment #94188 by sornord on December 5, 2007 at 1:37 am

Meaningless rituals = More stupidity...will it never end?

Reminds me of when I was assigned to Medan, Indonesia over 20 years ago. We had a maid, whom I asked if she was Muslim. She replied in pigeon English that she was. I asked if she really prayed to Mecca five times a day and again she said yes. I then asked, "Which way is Mecca?" She said she didn't know so she always bows toward the airport that was near our house.

17. The Year of Living Biblically

Comment #84670 by sornord on November 3, 2007 at 7:04 am

Interesting comment near the end...

Jacobs said he never prayed but doing so as part of this project led him to believe (only during course the project, one hopes.) His comment was about how much behavior influences thought.

To me this demonstrates how prayer is more than just a delusional comfort technique - thumb sucking for adults? - but also a tool by which the delusion is ingrained into and perpetuated by human psychology: the bedrock of the brain washing.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." - Joseph Goebbels

18. The US is a Christian Nation

Comment #82678 by sornord on October 27, 2007 at 7:52 am

The US is not actually a democracy, per se, but a democratic REPUBLIC since elected REPRESENTATIVES legislate in the name of their constituents.

And that will be the whole my career as a civics teacher...

19. Cheney and Obama: It's Not Genetic

Comment #80700 by sornord on October 22, 2007 at 4:58 pm

Perhaps those more knowledgeable in genetics than I am can verify but I recall reading some years ago that at third cousins and beyond a random stranger's DNA will usually show just as much "family relation" to yours...or something like that.

So at the distances discussed here, just about anyone could be related to anyone else?

20. Does fundamentalist religion cause the rejection of evolution? or is it the other way around?

Comment #80303 by sornord on October 21, 2007 at 8:41 am

The fundies' own dogma concerning evolution paints them into a corner: A major fundie principal is that the Bible is literally true. If the facts on the ground prove evolution (for all practical purposes), then the primary fundie principal is shown false and casts doubt on their entire foundation, i.e. the literal truth of the Bible.

Sort of like the iceman's realizing the future won't include him unless he can get refrigerators banned somehow...

21. Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin

Comment #74260 by sornord on September 28, 2007 at 2:02 am

Can the producers be sued? Seems an arguable case for fraud to me.

22. A Virus Among Honeybees

Comment #69409 by sornord on September 11, 2007 at 6:49 am

In addition to stressing the bees/hives making them more vulnerable to the virus' effect, trucking from place to place could also have spread the virus by the likely contact between trucked bees and local bees in that area buzzing among the same crops.

23. Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith

Comment #69376 by sornord on September 11, 2007 at 3:07 am

"Is there a way to support and encourage these people?"

Get them and their stories & movement on television: CNN and other televised news media, attention-getting celebrities supporting the cause.

All must recognize, however, this carries an increased risk to these brave people.

I also note Mr. Jami compares the rise of radical Islam to the rise of Nazism, which I have done for years in private conversations. "Islamo-fascist" is the correct term. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, love him or hate him, regularly uses this term and has at least nailed this one.

24. Curriculum for Baptist School

Comment #62519 by sornord on August 10, 2007 at 3:07 am

Absolute consistency in math: wonder what will happen when they get to irrational or imaginary numbers...or will they get to THAT level of math?

Sounds more what I imagine a Madrassa would be...

25. Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much

Comment #54447 by sornord on July 7, 2007 at 6:58 am

Just personal observation but, as one who came up through the US school system in the '70's, and raised kids through it in the '90s and '00's, it seems that sciences, maths, and critical thinking take a back seat to promotion of self-esteem (deserved or not), political correctness, multi-culturalism, social skills and socio-political activism.

(In the words of Eric Cartman, "Tree hugging hippie crap!")

Because it was screwed up over the course of a couple of generations, I think it likely to take a couple of generations to change course...

26. A battler beyond belief: Review of 'God is Not Great'

Comment #50319 by sornord on June 16, 2007 at 6:06 pm

Stalin, Mao, Hitler, et al. were each at the center of a "cult of personality"...that probably shared many of the same psychological underpinnings as religious cults

And while we're on the subject, couldn't any religion be considered a successful cult?

27. PBS Revelation: Network's 'Wall Of Separation' Has Religious Right Genesis

Comment #49700 by sornord on June 13, 2007 at 2:51 am

The Passion was the most boring movie I've seen in decades!

28. Bengali Translation of The First Chapter of The God Delusion

Comment #49697 by sornord on June 13, 2007 at 2:48 am

If not already done, TGD should be translated into Arabic and copies by the millions air dropped over the entire Muslim world...for a start.

29. House Votes to Expand Stem Cell Research

Comment #48554 by sornord on June 8, 2007 at 11:14 am

"Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure,"

30. Protesting the Creation Museum

Comment #48320 by sornord on June 7, 2007 at 12:40 pm

For Liberalartist: What we have in the US education system is the result of a couple generations of "dumbed down" standards, where self esteem, political correctness and social skills/awareness were emphasized instead of scientific reasoning, independent investigation and evidenced-based critical analysis.

Consequently large segments of the population are dumb as a box of rocks, particularly in the sciences, but feel great about themselves...

31. The Video: Bill O'Reilly Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #34730 by sornord on April 25, 2007 at 2:44 am

The general science education level in the US makes it difficult for scientific arguments like Richard's to be understood by "the masses." I'm a regular viewer of O'Reilly's show and he seems to demonstrate regularly the typical level of science understanding of most Americans.

32. In the Beginning

Comment #28855 by sornord on March 31, 2007 at 9:30 am

The audio says this is part two. Is part one available somewhere for download?

Stephen Wilson