Comments by weavehole

Comment #124428 by weavehole on February 9, 2008 at 12:07 pm

Geoff, I had a go on a e-meter a few years ago outside the dianetics shop on Tottenham Court Road. It became clear very quickly that the harder you squeeze the metal cylinders the more the little needle whizzes off to the right of the screen.

Obviously, I didnt spend a few minutes squeezing very hard during the dull questions and relaxing during the 'stressful' ones.

That would have been cruel and served no purpose at all.

Obviously.

Saying that, I do like some of their 'teachings' e.g. never skip over a word that you don't understand the meaning of. Excuse me while I go and look up Stochastic...

2. Ad 'likely to offend gay people'

Comment #123213 by weavehole on February 6, 2008 at 3:59 pm

WSteg, your link is being gay. < /modernvernacular >. Try a . instead of a ,.
ps what's a circs?

3. Ad 'likely to offend gay people'

Comment #123075 by weavehole on February 6, 2008 at 12:32 pm

WSteg, can you tell me what words your dog is sniffing in your Avatar?
It looks like 'yostsripten giftwart' to me, and that just doesn't make _any_ sense. :)

4. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123055 by weavehole on February 6, 2008 at 12:14 pm

I remember reading Ravi Zacharias' Deliver Us From Evil in about 1996 whilst going through a period of 'searching'. Had not heard his name mentioned before or after until this video and it stirred a synapse or two.

The best argument he had for Christianity being The Way, featured an American in some foreign gaol finding pages torn from a bible... In a toilet.

This shit strewn papyrus is apparently enough to show that the creator of the universe does indeed move in the most mysterious of ways.

Many a wise word in a grey head, my arse!

5. An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus

Comment #122819 by weavehole on February 6, 2008 at 6:41 am

epeeist, a quick foray into wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh#Derivation
seems to give a few etymological possibilties, personally i'm going for the popeye version: "I Yam what I Yam"

6. An Altar Beyond Olympus for a Deity Predating Zeus

Comment #122810 by weavehole on February 6, 2008 at 6:07 am

Ken Dowden, director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, in England, who was not involved in the research, said that it was not surprising to find the migrating Greeks adapting a sanctuary dedicated to gods of an earlier religion for the worship of their own gods. "Even Christians would on occasion reuse a pagan sanctuary in order to transfer allegiance from the preceding religion to Christianity," he noted.

As an aside, this adaptation can work in all directions as seen in Book 1 of Maccabees where Antiochus decides that "Judaism should be brought into line with Hellenism by ... erecting a statue to Zeus-Yahveh in the Temple itself..." Source: Asimov's Guide To The Bible [p715].

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

Comment #121222 by weavehole on February 3, 2008 at 5:29 am

119. Comment #120775 by phasmagigas

Ooh! Poe's Law! Poe's Law!

I think you are wrong. The bible does mention pampers.

Proverbs 29:21

21 If a man pampers his servant from youth,
he will bring grief [a] in the end.

maybe the same idea was used on the animals in the Ark. I find it hard to believe 8 people could perform clean-up duty on all that crap

Grand-Doctor Weavehole Senior Fellow at the Institute of Normalcy (Sealand Branch).

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

Comment #120705 by weavehole on February 2, 2008 at 11:02 am

Why thank you emmet, I shall henceforth be known as Grand-Doctor Weavehole Senior Fellow at the Institute of Normalcy (Sealand Branch).

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

Comment #120646 by weavehole on February 2, 2008 at 7:57 am

PZ my thanks to you for getting out there.

emmet can I be a Senior Fellow too please? Then, maybe, I will finally win the respect of my friends and peers :)

10. Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

Comment #119368 by weavehole on January 31, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Jimbob, I agree.

Rather than another petition though ;) Does anyone have the 4's email adds?

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

Comment #112196 by weavehole on January 16, 2008 at 2:43 pm

Good Health to you, Sir!

12. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #110464 by weavehole on January 11, 2008 at 8:41 am

Thanks Robert Maynard and Goldy, will look into that a wee bit more.

If I said Tamils were the first it would have been as the first to strap explosives to their own bodies. I think the history of suicide warriors go way way back, Berserkers, Hashashins? Mind you, i could be talking shit there; pulling names out of my arse.

Anyway, ta for the free lurnin gents!

13. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #110039 by weavehole on January 10, 2008 at 11:15 am

Robert Maynard said

The issue has been raised before [edit: in this forum], and it has been rationalised by myself and others that although the Tamil Tigers operate for a secular, nationalistic cause, pretending that their willingness to commit suicide is not the least bit influenced by their belief in karma and reincarnation (as hinduists) is ridiculous.

Cheers, Robert. Could you direct me to that particular thread? I'd be intereseted in a quick gander!

It's not that I necessarily disagree with you but if I (or indeed we) are going to use such a statement (NO SUICIDE BOMBINGS) I want to know that it's set on solid foundations. Forgive me if I appeared to be trolling.

I spoke to a colleague today who has spent about nine of the last twelve months working in Sri Lanka. Her understanding of the TT is that they are of several different religions (probably with the largest single majority being Muslim as well as there being Hindus, Secularists and Christians) however she maintains, as you alluded, that their motives are entirely non-religious (certainly not Fundamentalist). Incidentally, she had never heard that the first recorded instance of suicide bombing was by a Tamil, so I'm not claiming 100% knowledge here...

Does anyone have any info on the religious (if any) background of the actual bombers? I think that if we're going to use this as a hookline or argument it should be watertight.

In addition, here's what RD says in TGD (p306)

Patriotic love of country or ethnic group can also make the world safefor it's own version of extremism, can't it? Yes it can, aswith the kamikazes in Japan and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. But religious faith is an especially potent silencer of rational calculation, which usually seems to trump all others. This is mostly, I suspect, because of the easy and beguiling promise that death is not the end, and that a martyr's heaven is especially glorious. But it is also partly because it discourages questioning, by its very nature.

I wish I could tcuoh tpye as wlel.

14. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109196 by weavehole on January 8, 2008 at 2:53 pm

NO SUICIDE BOMBINGS

Erm, Tamil Tigers, anyone?

15. Blind Faiths

Comment #108767 by weavehole on January 7, 2008 at 2:45 pm

Comment #108763 by 82abhilash

Oops, I did. Cheers for that.

16. Blind Faiths

Comment #108758 by weavehole on January 7, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Good question Allan.
Having not read in any detail any particular official reports, I'll hazard a guess that the communities/families involved are either not able or not willing to give evidence. With the result that the Police are hitting there heads against a brick wall.
Do you think there may be other factors?

17. Blind Faiths

Comment #108747 by weavehole on January 7, 2008 at 2:08 pm

Comment #108732 by AllanW

I see many examples now of what 'multiculturalism' is. Essentially that anything someone does or professes from a non-white background (normally an ex-colony hence some of the guilt I suspect) should be respected and above all not judged or challenged as it is their 'culture'. I cannot think of an idea more opposed to reason or science.

I hear what you say and I sense a whiff of the anti-politically-correct there but even with the PCPolice around I've never heard of anyone judge in any way but negatively; 'honour' killings, for example.

I guess picking and choosing is not just the favoured past-time of bible-bashers. But us multiculturalists can do it too (within Reason, of course).

;)

18. Blind Faiths

Comment #108723 by weavehole on January 7, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Personally, I've never understood certain folk who decry multiculturalism and seem to want to step back to a time where East was East and West was Best. All muliticulturalism ever meant to me was that I could sit in a pub with workmates from Ethiopia, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Denmark usw and by turns laugh and argue.

Anyway, isn't multiculturalism just a corollary of Reason/Science. An extension to the knowledge that, genetically, we are all more alike than different? Reason, surely, is the best way we can trump the ingroup-outgroupiness of the religious... Fucking splitters!

...Sorry, i think that hippy i ate for breakfast is repeating on me.

19. What have you changed your mind about? Why?

Comment #105629 by weavehole on January 1, 2008 at 9:53 am

Does this mean that if I go out and buy meself a flash car and Saville Row suit I'll be able to trick a female into loving me?

:0(

Happy New Year everyone!

20. Huge Black Holes May Hold Keys to Galaxy Formation

Comment #84592 by weavehole on November 2, 2007 at 4:54 pm

Think i'm going to have to re-read this thread in the morning when i'm more than an eighth awake. It did remind me of this though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=broQIiBDchQ

21. The Squirrel Wars

Comment #76799 by weavehole on October 7, 2007 at 10:01 am

Can we please just cull the toffs instead? Seriously, don't they have anything better to do?
Hmm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLgttg2olmU

22. Researchers devise way to calculate rates of evolution

Comment #76239 by weavehole on October 5, 2007 at 7:21 am

They do not realize that the concept of "species" is a convenient invention to seperate animals according to their phenotype, but is not a hard and fast barrier.

Does this relate to the example RD gives in The Ancestors Tale where one colony of Gulls on the south of a coastline can breed with the next colony along, but are sufficiently different from those at the furthest point north to be considered a different species?

23. Mother Teresa's '40-year faith crisis'

Comment #65542 by weavehole on August 24, 2007 at 4:56 pm

Spot the difference.

"I talk to God, but the sky is empty, and Orion walks by and doesn't speak." - Mother Teresa

"I am told God loves me, and yet the reality of the darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul." - Sylvia Plath

Weird story.

24. Richard Dawkins, TV evangelist

Comment #63456 by weavehole on August 14, 2007 at 12:14 pm

it lacks the regular rituals and special festivals at which evangelicals gather to rehearse their faith and identity

I reckons tis definately time we changed this. February 12th next year (Darwin Day): you are all invited round to my place for a lovely big party. wardsie and Northern Bright will meet for the first time and really hit it off, leading to a non-denominational wedding in which RD can wear a nice new hat... Cilla style!

Come on it'll be great.

We can all wear different shaped beaks and stuff!

25. Fears Grow Over 'Mega Mosque'

Comment #56602 by weavehole on July 16, 2007 at 2:08 pm

Surely we can just create a large eruv around it like what those nice young boys in Borehamwood are doing. If my calculations are correct we'll only need 3/4 mile of wire and about 450 poles to erect it.

My mate Aleksy will even help put it up at half the cost of your average eruv constructor. There you go, everyone's a winner, especially if we put a bingo hall up next door.

Now, what could we call it?

26. Borehamwood eruv granted planning permission

Comment #56533 by weavehole on July 16, 2007 at 7:12 am

For instance, did you know that a husband is not allowed to touch his wife (anywhere) when she is menstruating?

Surely, one can erect an eruv around one's wifes lady lumps for an hour or two a day?

27. A child's Darwinian revolution (Review of 'Growing Up in the Universe')

Comment #53666 by weavehole on July 2, 2007 at 12:53 pm

I remember watching these lectures every year throughout my adolescence. The Dawkins episodes, in particular, struck a chord and made a big impact into my outlook on LTUAE.

Many thanks to all involved.

28. Scientists Link Housecats to Wildcat Subspecies

Comment #53631 by weavehole on July 2, 2007 at 10:45 am

Um, why are the National Cancer Institute doing this? Shouldn't they be curing cancer or something?

http://home.ncifcrf.gov/ccr/lgd/comparative_genome/catgenome/whythecat.asp

29. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #52184 by weavehole on June 26, 2007 at 12:40 pm

Has it ever occured to anyone else that a decade or so ago the brothers Hitchen sat in a room and flipped a coin to decide which of the two would become the sober right-wing god-botherer and which would be the alcohol-fuelled atheist?

You know,for a laff!

(And the possibility of extra column inches).

30. A Quote Against Theocracy

Comment #49044 by weavehole on June 10, 2007 at 4:35 am

Comment #48636 by Salvatore Is it once very four days?

31. Pale Blue Dot

Comment #47597 by weavehole on June 5, 2007 at 3:43 am

Have bunged one of these vids onto my myspace along with some other 'sentimental and cloying' ones. That guarantees at least one more person watching it and slagging me off or putting up another boring space video. Oh well, there's some old Punk vids up there as well (pretty sure they were fairly godless).

/weavehole if you're bothered...

(does this count as spam?)

32. The Art of Handling Thetans

Comment #45837 by weavehole on May 29, 2007 at 11:30 am

I spent a happy five minutes confusing a young Scientologist in 'London's Busy' Tottenham Court Road a few years back. They have a stall outside their recruitment office with a pleasant youngster and an odd-looking lie-detector-style machine.

After sitting down and gripping the two metallic cylinders attached to the machine I was asked a series of 'incisive' questions. "Do you get on with your family/colleagues?" etc.

After a short time it became obvious that the harder you squeeze the metal cylinders the more the little needle on the machine jumps around. The bemused look on the wee girl's face was priceless as the needle went eppy inbetween questions and remained motionless at the points that would supposedly create the most stress.

I would heartily recommend spending as much time as possible listening to their inanitys before saying that you've already "flicked through Dianetics and watched almost 15 minutes of Battlefield Earth and have realised that even that was a disastrous waste of time."

Next time I may have to ask them what their term for someone who hasn't yet joined up is? And if they can say it loudly and clearly for me. (Are there any black scientologists?) [edit: having just read djmagaro's above post, apparently there are. Oh, the non-PC irony]

Oh and can someone please tell me that Jason Lee is NOT one of these idiots! Please. [edit: PLEASE!]

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

Comment #44534 by weavehole on May 25, 2007 at 4:03 am

Dr Dhawan, who is leading research into whether liver cell injections can replace transplants,...

You have to ask the question, why bother? Surely we can just put a bit of rag what-a-dead-fella-held-once on all patients with dodgy livers...

34. Ask Richard!

Comment #41698 by weavehole on May 16, 2007 at 3:49 pm

I would like to ask Richard: Just what exactly do you have against mid-nineties alternative rock quartet Gene and what evidence do you have to suggest they were anything other than nice, generous young boys? Hmm? Tsk and indeed, tut.

35. Pope Warns of Globalization, Marxism

Comment #41673 by weavehole on May 16, 2007 at 2:40 pm

If my maths is correct (and it is) (erm, probably) then those people handily labelling themselves as either Catholic or Protestant made up 96% of Brazil's population in 1980 but only 89% 20 years later. Would be nice to know what that 7% class themselves as now. My money's on scientology... or Jedi.

36. Hitchens vs. Hannity on Religion and God

Comment #41615 by weavehole on May 16, 2007 at 11:56 am

Comment #40932 by Aaron

Excellent use of my new favourite word, a fucktard indeed.

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

Comment #40125 by weavehole on May 13, 2007 at 8:08 am

For a fairly detailed debunking of the atheist recantation myth see http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/volume120issue1_more.php?id=1226_0_34_0_C
Also here's a slice of Luis Bunuel:
"As I drift toward my last sigh, I often imagine a final joke. I convoke around my deathbed my friends who are confirmed atheists as I am. Then a priest, whom I have summoned, arrives; and to the horror of my friends, I make my confession, ask for absolution for my sins, and receive extreme unction. After which I turn over on my side and expire. But will I have the strength to joke at that moment?"

38. 4 Sermon for Matins: 'Dawkins and The God Delusion'

Comment #36582 by weavehole on May 1, 2007 at 4:10 pm

There is truth in Neighbors but it is not scientific truth. We can find explanations in Episode 362 of Neighbours as to why Harold Bishop dies, or in Episode 238 of Neighbours as to why Harold Bishop is in an agony of indecision, or in Episode 732 of Neighbours as to why Harold Bishop ends up resurrected and a penniless outcast doing 'his bit' for the salvation army - but these are not scientific explanations. The explanations in religious belief are much more like this than scientific explanations - and we need such explanations better to understand all sorts of truths about being a good neighbour. This is why a research scientist will work in the lab all day and in the evening go home to watch another Episode of Neighbours... right?

39. Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws In Britian

Comment #36579 by weavehole on May 1, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Well, it seems to me she lived her life like a candle in the wind. Oh sorry, different Express article... this one seems more fueled by racism than rationalism. File under I for Ignore, everyone else will. Erm, 'cept possibly BNP.

40. Einstein & Faith

Comment #31409 by weavehole on April 12, 2007 at 1:38 pm

What a dude. To reject immortality and a god that gives-a-damn but still be able to listen to the music of the spheres... now that's the way to live.

41. Jesus and Mo: Dummy

Comment #30141 by weavehole on April 7, 2007 at 4:10 am

Just read through the whole series of jesus and mo stories and it's left me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Especially the amputee/miracle argument and good friday being renamed the 'cruciversary'. Mmm sacrilicious.

42. Jesus and Mo: Dummy

Comment #30136 by weavehole on April 7, 2007 at 3:04 am

P'rhaps a nice pint of Bishop's Finger. Mmmm. Wish i wasnt at work.

43. Jesus and Mo: Dummy

Comment #30131 by weavehole on April 7, 2007 at 2:50 am

If that is a dildo i'm not gonna ask what it is they're drinking.

44. Jesus and Mo: Dummy

Comment #30116 by weavehole on April 7, 2007 at 2:00 am

Quick! Burn the heathen what drawed this!

45. Creation Science 101

Comment #28138 by weavehole on March 28, 2007 at 5:52 am

"That was out loud. Did you know that?". Touch.

46. God's dupes

Comment #26137 by weavehole on March 17, 2007 at 7:00 am

Hey, why the pessimism ralcock? [500-1000 yrs] Have some faith! ahem

47. Why Children Love Their Security Blankets

Comment #24783 by weavehole on March 8, 2007 at 2:25 pm

These kids sound quite astute. Surely a metal goblet owned by the queen would be worth more than an identical one owned by me. In fact, I feel another attempt to break-in to the Palace coming on.