Comments by Youssef51

Comment #72100 by Youssef51 on September 20, 2007 at 10:25 am

Splendid!

Just finished reading God Is Not Great. Hitchens is the sharpest polemicist we've got going for us right now.

2. We'd be better off without Religion

Comment #32214 by Youssef51 on April 16, 2007 at 7:53 am

"Any man who can look at the immense complexity and underlying order of the universe and deny the existence of God is an arrogant fool."

Any man who can look at the immense complexity and underlying order of the universe and ascribes it to the existence of a god is a scared little kid who believes every fairy tale he's ever heard and is terrified of his own shadow.

His Mama is calling him.

3. E.O. Wilson Accepts his 2007 TED Prize

Comment #30629 by Youssef51 on April 9, 2007 at 4:27 am

Prof. Wilson is a giant, one of the very greatest modern biologists.

It's a great shame that Americans are well familiar with the many clowns put forward by the commercial media and have barely heard of E. O. Wilson.

4. Merkel wants EU to be vocal about Christian roots

Comment #23747 by Youssef51 on March 2, 2007 at 12:18 pm

The Chancellor's comments are causing my bs-meter to go off the scale. Any EU accomplishments for the good of EU citizens like me are an expression of European secularism. It couldn't be more obvious. European "spirituality" has given us the auto-da-fé, mass graves, the Nazi party and the Polish Catholic Church.

The Chancellor appears to have sustained permanent damage to her common sense organs during her life in the DDR.

5. Executing Saddam Hussein was an Act of Vandalism

Comment #15827 by Youssef51 on January 3, 2007 at 8:17 am

I agree completely with R.D. It was an awful mistake to kill the man. Especially in the way they did it. More and bigger death squads.

However, in reply to R.D.'s question

"Could the danger have been nipped in the bud by an alert psychiatrist before it was too late?"

I'll venture a guess. No. A psychiatrist would not have been able to help. Sadly, only a loaded 9 millimeter pistol would have been of any real help in saving the many tens of thousands of innocents killed by Saddam.

6. When Atheists Have Their Say (5 Letters)

Comment #11613 by Youssef51 on December 6, 2006 at 12:22 am

Really interesting set of opinions in those letters to the Times.

I noticed a basic contrast between the comments of the atheists and the comments of the believers.

Dawkins and Harris reason carefully. They appeal to the deductive good sense of the reader to help clinch their arguments. They can marshal many telling examples and parallels to their positions. They avoid name calling, threats, dire predictions and absolute assertions of privileged knowledge.

Their theist opponents argue out of positions that they see as being "received" or inherently unchallengeable. They threaten, curse (quite literally), condemn to perdition, evoke ancient traditions that may or may not have existed before the 1800's and generally act with hysterical indignation.

I think the conclusion is a simple one: the theists are losing big time. They know it and are getting very upset about it. That's why what happened in Manhattan on September 11th, 2001 happened.

7. A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion

Comment #11160 by Youssef51 on December 3, 2006 at 12:01 pm

Kristof's heart is in the right place. Read his columns about Darfur if you doubt it.

On this topic, however, he does not know what he is talking about. He's just espousing the Kumbaya doctrine of hands around the campfire. Religious actors need to be told off. Badly.

Mr. Kristof: Think about Darfur and the misery that Islamic intolerance (between Moslems no less!) has brought down on the Darfuris. A little humanism in that wretched part of the world probably would have saved a few 100,000's of lives by now.

8. The godless guru

Comment #11157 by Youssef51 on December 3, 2006 at 11:53 am

The Bible is ok either as absurd comedy or as an ethnographic window on tribal savagery.

Calling it great literature is a shot in the dark. There are a few well written narratives and some good poetry. And a fantastic amount of crap. About 98%, matter of fact.

It's important in the history of literature because so many people have been forced to read it. Let's not get carried away about how wonderful it is as literature. Yogi Berra was a greater rhetorician than the Bible is great literature.

9. Dawkins's version of the deity does not exist

Comment #7733 by Youssef51 on November 19, 2006 at 8:03 am

Mr. Wahl -

You've got a point about Islamic notions.

Now all you have to do is extend the same simple insight to other superstitions and you are on your way.

BTW: Your comments about liberal abandon are very, very funny. Was that your intention?

10. Reading of The God Delusion in Lynchburg, VA

Comment #6445 by Youssef51 on November 14, 2006 at 9:50 am

To WJG #101

I would like to help you with a reasoned explanation but all the relevant data was destroyed by the Great Flood.

Which also drowned all the fish.

Please review Genesis 19.

Yours faithfully,

Youssef

11. Losing Our Religion

Comment #5806 by Youssef51 on November 11, 2006 at 6:59 am

"And finally of course there is no contest - empirical rationalism wins every time. If it didn't we wouldn't use it to run our legal system, our healthcare system etc. etc."

In fact, we'd have no technology, either. Stone tools presuppose empiricism.

As to the comfort factor, science could replace religion in people's minds and to very similar calming affect. But that's like saying that your herbal nose spray is going to totally wipe out the common cold. It's a real longshot because rhinoviruses have been around for a long time and won't give up without a tremendous fight.

12. Surviving 'Jesus Camp'

Comment #4632 by Youssef51 on November 5, 2006 at 12:57 am

Franklin:

An old song goes:

Fairy tales
Can come true
It can happen to you

Except for one thing. Fairy tales have not come true yet and they are very, very unlikely to come true any time soon.

You believe in your supreme spirits, some people believe in ghosts, others in unicorns, still others in the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

You are welcome to your beliefs, I wish you all the best. Just please don't try to impose your ridiculous daydreams on me, either directly or indirectly.

Also, please avoid indoctrinating small children in your nonsense as they have not yet developed the immune response needed to fight off your infection. Religious indoctrination of kids is abusive.

13. Atheist firebrand

Comment #4459 by Youssef51 on November 4, 2006 at 2:16 am

I'm a native New Yorker and I've been living in Sweden for 27 years. I am frequently back in the Old Country, traveling around.

We have our problems here, like anyplace else. One problem we do not have is dealing with religious lunatics, because they are exquisitely rare.

Less than 2% of Swedes attend church with any degree of regularity. Most never go. Swedish society is overwhelmingly secular.

On the other hand, our murder rate and crime generally is a tiny fraction of that in the US. The status of women in Swedish society is incomparably better than in the US. Infant mortality is much higher in the US than it is here. ALL Swedish kids have high quality, complete medical coverage and access to excellent medical care, both primary and secondary. The economy is highly competitive and we have one of the very highest living standards in the world.

Also, forget the bs about suicide. That is so old. The suicide rate in any society is an expression of the frequency of autopsy. Get over it.

Seemingly the absence of faith in imaginary beings has not hurt Sweden too badly.

14. Charlottesville, VA Event Photos

Comment #4457 by Youssef51 on November 4, 2006 at 2:02 am

Splendid. Particularly the last two.

Thomas Jefferson (he drew the library) would have been in the audience and listened carefully and appreciatively.

A suggestion: please date the photos.

15. Pat Morrison interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #3687 by Youssef51 on October 31, 2006 at 6:53 am

Do yourself a favor. Start at 17:45 into the mp3.

16. KPFA Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #3686 by Youssef51 on October 31, 2006 at 6:51 am

The exchange above indicates one thing pretty clearly.

Lunatic, totalitarian ideologies are very similar to religions. They are so similar, in fact, that we might have to wonder if we are not looking at exactly the same thing and giving it two different names.

17. I don't believe in Richard Dawkins

Comment #3372 by Youssef51 on October 28, 2006 at 12:22 am

"Parents indoctrinate their children with all manner of odious beliefs."

Malik is way too dismissive here. He's blowing a fuse.

Religious beliefs are very special in this context.

Religion has evolved as a parasite in little kids minds. This host vector is an essential part of religion's power and it can't survive without it.

When Malik continues about "the nature of parenting" he is on very thin ice. He writes like a biologist who thinks malaria is a natural component of the human red blood cells.

18. Sermons and straw men

Comment #3157 by Youssef51 on October 26, 2006 at 2:28 am

"I just have no idea who the intended parishioners might be."

huh?

Then who's buying all those copies of The God Delusion?

Must be the parishioners and there must be a lot of them.

19. Lynchburg, VA Photos : Batch 2

Comment #3156 by Youssef51 on October 26, 2006 at 2:19 am

Marvelous pictures.

One gets the impression in the first three of a old fashioned carnival funhouse.

Except not so fun.

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen!"

20. Lawrence, Kansas : Speech

Comment #2873 by Youssef51 on October 24, 2006 at 10:40 am

RealPlayer is evil.

Please provide some kind of alternative, open source format is possible.

21. Danger ahead - there are good reasons why God created atheists

Comment #2415 by Youssef51 on October 21, 2006 at 7:57 am

At least the Rabbi is not screaming and yelling. That's something to be thankful for.

His point about imagining the non-existence of religion is worth thinking about, too.

In the toss-up between no Balkan Wars and no Book of Psalms I'll take no Book of Psalms any day. It's really not a hard call.

22. Photo shows the dangers of brainwashing children

Comment #2308 by Youssef51 on October 20, 2006 at 1:43 pm

Take a good look, folks.

This is what True Belief looks like.

Prof. Dawkins has told us about Blind Faith and he knows what he's talking about.

If you think "Oh, religion is just a lot of quaint nonsense. Who cares.", take a good look and notice where the gun is pointing.

23. Stephen Colbert Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #2015 by Youssef51 on October 18, 2006 at 8:07 am

Excellent, Prof. Dawkins!

Dr. Dawkins was absolutely first rate. He did a marvelous job of getting his viewpoint across given the severe constraints of the Colbert format.

Those of you worried about any booing can take heart. Dr. Dawkins charmed the hell out of the studio audience and sold a huge pile of The God Delusion in the process.

You can all be certain that many, many thousands of Americans who had never heard of Richard Dawkins have ordered the book and are going to read it and be changed by reading it because of that brief, distracted sound-bite.

We speak the languages we are given and do the best we can. Dawkins is a true hero.